Pushing the Panic Button
By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
Right now, we are almost a quarter of the way through the 2023 Dynasty Owner regular season, as the start of Week 4 is nearly upon us. In Dynasty Owner, we have a 14-week regular season (and three weeks of playoffs), so there’s no quarter-mile pole. I know that Patriots coach Bill Belichick typically breaks the season up into quarters, and it’s a good way to do things, but with 14 regular season games, it can’t be done for Dynasty Owners.
With six teams out of 12 making the Dynasty Owner playoffs, it’s not time to push the panic button just yet, even if your Dynasty Owner team is 0-3. After all, there were plenty of 7-7 Dynasty Owner playoff teams last year (and probably in every other year of Dynasty Owner). Any 0-3 teams “just” needs to finish 7-4 to make it with a .500 record. It’s not unreasonable to think your team can do it, especially if that team is patiently waiting on the return of Cooper Kupp ($26,700,000) or Jonathan Taylor ($1,957,288), or both of them, from the Injured Reserve list.
In the NFL, it’s pretty close to time to push the panic button on the 2023 season, but not just yet. According to this article, since 1979, six teams have made the playoffs after starting the season 0-3 and overall, only 2.4% of teams that have started 0-3 in the Super Bowl era have made the playoffs, with the 2018 Houston Texans being the last ones to do so. With the four remaining 0-3 NFL teams facing off against one another in Week 4 (Carolina vs. Minnesota and Chicago vs. Denver). How amazing is that? Unless there is a tie, we’ll definitely have two 0-4 NFL teams who will definitely be pushing that panic button. Only the 1992 San Diego Chargers have gone 0-4 and made the playoffs. They are also the only one of the six 0-3 playoff teams to actually win a playoff game. Everyone else lost in the Wild Card round. Therefore, no team has gone 0-3 and made it to the Super Bowl or even a conference championship game.
If your Dynasty Owner team started 0-3 in a previous season and made the playoffs, let me know by reaching out on Twitter/X (@SteveVT33) or sending it to Dynasty Owner on Twitter/X. And if you have an 0-3 facing another 0-3 team in Dynasty Owner this week, let me know, and I’ll definitely feature it as the Week 4 Match-up of the Week. That way, everyone who plays Dynasty Owner can see if your team get it’s first win on the season. If they lose and go 0-4, it’s time for you to push the panic button on the 2023 Dynasty Owner season.
Thanks for reading my weekly preview article and for being a Dynasty Owner, especially if you have an 0-3 Dynasty Owner team. In that case, I hope that I offer up some good recommendations for Week 3, you find someone to put in your starting lineup or on your bench, and that helps get your team to 1-3.
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 Tyreek Hill ($30,000,000), who is still the top scoring player in Dynasty Owner after three weeks and has been since Week 1. He’s likely cemented in your starting lineup unless something bad happens or the Dolphins are on bye. Other players who are rostered in 100% (or nearly 100%) of Dynasty Owner leagues with low ADPs won’t be mentioned either. Instead, I’m going to recommend you start players outside the top players at their position, players drafted to be on your bench or practice squad, or players who aren’t on a roster in every Dynasty Owner league or have high ADPs and could be found in the 12th round or later 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 doing well so far and drafted early in Dynasty Owner startup drafts to be starters and also projected in the top 12 (QBs and TEs) or top 36 (RBs and WRs) in scoring this year. This section is where you might see some surprising players appear. However, the recommended Bench players shouldn’t be in your Starting lineup for the week based on matchups, past performance against a team, or something else.
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.
Any salaries, ADPs and roster percentages listed were current as of the morning of September 28th. All 2023 contract information is currently what is listed on the Dynasty Owner platform (number of years and salaries) and has been taken from Spotrac (https://www.spotrac.com/).
Dynasty Owner Player of the Week
Before we get into Week 4, let’s look at Week 3 and announce the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. The Player of the Week is the only player who could make people forget about Puka Nacua ($1,021,244) as a fantasy football rookie who came out of nowhere. It’s a little early for that speculation after just three games, but when you score as many points as our winner did in Week 3, that’s what happens. Our winner this week is Devon Achane.
Devon Achane ($1,359,362) was playing in only his second career NFL game last week, which is tied for the earliest in his career that a player has been the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. Can you guess the other player who won this award in only his second career NFL game? I’ll give you a hint: he’s a teammate of Achane’s. The answer will appear in the Conclusion section at the end of this article.
Back to Achane who also did something that only a couple of other players have done, which is be the Player of the Week and the best weekly value in Dynasty Owner as well. The first player to do it was Dak Prescott ($40,000,000) back in the first week of the 2019 beta season of Dynasty Owner when he had 49.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on his $680,848 salary for a $13,782 cost per point. The second time was in the final week of the 2020 season with Alvin Kamara ($15,000,000) who was earning just $964,443 at the time and scored 58.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points for a cost per point of $16,571. The third time was with Achane’s teammate, to be named later, and now Achane. So, it has happened less than once per season.
Achane had the highest number of Dynasty Owner fantasy points in a week since his QB Tua Tagovailoa ($7,568,859) had 60.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points back in Week 2 of last year. Achane scored 57.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (203 rushing yards, 4 receptions, 30 receiving yards, 4 TDs). His week was so incredible that it overshadowed the fact that three other players had more points than last week’s Player of the Week winner, Kirk Cousins ($35,000,000) did. I won’t name them to steal any attention from Achane, but if you have one of them on your Dynasty Owner roster, you know who they are. Congratulations to Devon on a pretty incredible game and start of your NFL career.
Week 3 Points: 57.3
2023 Salary: $1,359,362
Cost per Point: $23,724
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. As mentioned above, the third Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week was actually only the second most valuable player of the week. They are still our winner though and it’s Brock Purdy.
Brock Purdy ($934,252) finally gets his first Value Player of the Week award of 2023 and it’s overshadowed by another player. Fairly typical for Purdy who was Mr. Irrelevant (last player taken) in the 2022 NFL Draft and is constantly being underestimated by people who say that he’s doing well just because of the 49ers’ “system”. All Purdy has done for his Dynasty Owners since becoming the 49ers’ starting QB is score more than 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in six out of eight games. In the other two games, he had 19.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in his first start in Week 13 last year and a career low of 15.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points last week. His career low is 15.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in basically half a season. Please go and find someone else who has done as well in their first season. I’ll wait…
Done waiting because you aren’t going to find anyone. It’s surprising that this week’s performance of 27.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (310 passing yards, -1 rushing yard, 2 TDs, 1 fumble) is his second best performance and also his second Value Player of the Week. With a salary of under $1 million, it should happen many other times unless the 49ers reward him with a restructured contract one of these days. Until that happens, and even if it happens tomorrow, Purdy’s salary will stay the same for the entire 2023 season, so his Dynasty Owners should continue to enjoy the cost savings and having a QB making under $1 million who is a fringe weekly starting QB on the platform. Congratulations, Brock on your second overall Value Player of the Week award and the first one of the 2023 season!
Week 3 Points: 27.4
2023 Salary: $934,252
Cost per Point: $34,097
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Before we get into the weekly recommendations, I’ll always take a look at how my recommendations from the previous week fared (Good, Bad or Just Ok) and give a recap. Here’s how the four players who I predicted performances worthy of being in your Dynasty Owner starting lineup in Week 3 did.
QB: Dak Prescott ($40,000,000) – 17.8 (Bad recommendation)
RB: A.J. Dillon ($1,321,458) – 3.3 (Bad recommendation)
WR: K.J. Osborn ($890,693) – 10.6 (Just Ok recommendation)
TE: Jake Ferguson ($1,091,221) – 9.8 (Good recommendation)
Let’s start with the good recommendation. Jake Ferguson had 9.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions for 48 receiving yards) against Arizona and was the TE11 for the week. That’s a low-end starting TE in Dynasty Owner so that was a good recommendation.
We also had a Just Ok recommendation this week, with K.J. Osborn falling just outside of the top 36 WRs with 10.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception, 36 receiving yards, 1 TD). I was wrong, and there was not enough room for him to be in your starting lineup, even with Kirk Cousins throwing for 367 yards and 3 TDs. Osborn was only targeted 3 times despite Cousins attempting 50 passes. The outcome was luckily just okay, as his single reception was a 36-yard TD catch.
Finally, the QB and RB recommendations were bad. Dak Prescott was too close to the Sam Howell ($1,005,400) performance in Week 1 rather than Daniel Jones’ ($40,000,000) performance in Week 2. Prescott also had his first turnover and just 17.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (249 passing yards, 24 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT), which made hm QB21 in Dynasty Owner for the week and not worth a starting lineup spot. A.J. Dillon didn’t do much for a second game in a row without Aaron Jones ($12,000,000) and was held to 33 rushing yards (3.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points).
While Week 3 was a slight bit better than Week 2 due to the Just Ok recommendation, it’s still not where I want to be for these predictions. I’m not pushing the panic button just yet, it’s far too early for that, but I’d like to get back to even since I have more Bad vs. Good recommendations (5 Bad and 4 Good). Here are the guys who are going to get me there by having starting lineup-worthy performances in Week 4.
Jameis Winston (QB – NO): Everybody loves a good revenge game. Jameis Winston ($4,000,000) playing against Tampa Bay where he played for the first five years of his career after he was the number one overall pick by the Buccaneers in the 2015 NFL Draft is just that.
There isn’t a lot of statistical stuff that I can cite to back up this recommendation, and it’s not even the first time he’s played them or his first return trip to Tampa as a starter since this game is in New Orleans. His record against Tampa Bay is mixed. He’s played against them twice (Week 2 of the 2021 season and Week 8 of the 2022 season) and scored a combined 20.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. However, he was injured early in the 2021 game after starting out well with 12.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (56 passing yards, 40 rushing yards, 1 TD). Last year, he played the whole game but had only 8.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (236 passing yards, 2 rushing yards, 1 TD, 3 INTs, 1 fumble). Both of those games were in New Orleans, like this week’s game.
Winston was ok subbing in for Derek Carr ($37,500,000) last week with 101 passing yards (5.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) and no touchdown drives. He also didn’t have a turnover, which is good. However, he can be turnover prone, and Tampa Bay has 7 turnovers (5 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries) on defense already this season. Hopefully Winston has a chance to make good on this recommendation and take advantage of a Buccaneers defense allowing an average of 10.7 yards per pass play, which ranks 25th in the NFL. Start Winston if you grabbed him off the Free Agent Auction this week or if you’ve been stashing him for just this opportunity as long as he’s starting for the Saints.
Khalil Herbert (RB – CHI): After last week’s debacle in Miami, I’d be crazy not to pick someone playing against the Broncos this week. Even if it’s the Bears, I can’t take Roschon Johnson ($1,152,172) because he’s the RB24 right now in Dynasty Owner. As a result, I’ll go with Khalil Herbert ($902,677), who was drafted ahead of Johnson in Dynasty Owner startup drafts this year (88.6 ADP for Herbert vs. 127.3 ADP for Johnson), but was still the 33rd RB taken on average and is ranked as RB43 so far after three games.
Denver allowed 350 rushing yards on 43 carries for an absurd 8.1 yards per carry. They also allowed 5 rushing TDs. They were much better in the two previous weeks than last week, but the scars from that performance may still be there and hopefully the Bears can take advantage. It’s a risk to trust a team averaging only 250 yards of offense per game, but the positive side is that over 100 yards of that (101.7) is rushing, and Herbert is averaging 4.0 yards per carry (23 rushing attempts for 93 rushing yards) himself.
Herbert has nine games with double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 33 career games, including four games with over 90 rushing yards. Not sure if he’ll get that many rushing yards, but it shows that he’s capable of doing it when given the workload, and if the Broncos don’t improve upon their performance from last week, Herbert could do it again. Get Herbert into your starting lineup this week against Denver.
Darius Slayton (WR – NYG): The Giants face off this week against a Seattle defense that might be missing two of its top cornerbacks in Tariq Woolen and Cody Bryant. Safety Jamal Adams will likely be making his 2023 season debut, but that should help to neutralize TE Darren Waller ($17,000,000) who is the Giants best receiver, and force Daniel Jones ($40,000,000) to throw to his WRs more. Out of the Island of Misfit Toys group of WRs for the Giants, the top one is definitely Darius Slayton ($6,000,000).
Slayton has the most targets (17), receiving yards (109) and Dynasty Owner fantasy points (19.9) among the Giants WRs and only trails Parris Campbell ($4,700,000) in receptions. Campbell has 11 receptions, while Slayton has 9. Slayton has been a steady bench option so far with 5 or 6 targets for 3 receptions and games of 4.5, 9.2 and 6.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, respectively. Now, he gets to face the Seahawks secondary that has been poor so far this season and is second worst in receptions and receiving yards allowed, tied for second worst in TDs allowed to WRs.
Sounds like a good time to have the top WR on a poor pass defense team in your Starting lineup. That’s why I’m recommending that you promote him into your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
Cole Turner (TE – WAS): Typically, a TE can be labeled as a Starting TE in Dynasty Owner if he has a week with 10.0 or more Dynasty Owner fantasy points. This season, the weekly TE12 has scored less than double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points twice and the third time, there were several TEs tied as TE12 with 10.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. So far, the Washington Commanders three TEs – John Bates ($1,050,604), Logan Thomas ($8,021,667) and Cole Turner ($999,720) have combined for 43.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and more than 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points every week.
Why is Turner the choice? Thomas is arguably the TE1 for the Commanders, but he didn’t play in Week 3 due to a concussion, but is expected to play in Week 4. That makes it more difficult for Turner, but not impossible. Bates and Turner played 31 snaps each in Week 3 against Buffalo and Turner’s snaps are going up every week. Turner was targeted 7 times for 7.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 35 receiving yards) compared to only 2 targets and 3.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 12 receiving yards) for Bates.
The Eagles have allowed 54.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (18 receptions, 187 receiving yards, 3 TDs) to TEs this season, an average of 18.2 points per game. If Turner gets half of the usual average this week, he’ll be a low-end starter on your Dynasty Owner team. I’m not saying that Turner should start over Travis Kelce ($14,312,500) or Mark Andrews ($14,000,000) but if you don’t have a clear-cut top TE and Turner is on your practice squad or available in the Free Agent Auction (54.79% rostered), then he’ll make a fine streaming choice for the week. Also consider Bates as a late-week bench TE pick-up if Thomas is ruled out of Week 4 before the Sunday morning Free Agent Auction run since he is largely not rostered (10.34%). I wouldn’t go so far as to have Turner as the starter and Bates on my Dynasty Owner Bench. That’s too many Commanders and we all know there’s only one Commander on a ship.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
Now it’s time to look at how each of my bench recommendations from Week 3 worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok).
QB: Geno Smith ($25,000,000) – 19.4 (Good recommendation)
RB: Miles Sanders ($6,350,000) – 17.2 (Bad recommendation)
WR: DJ Moore ($20,628,000) – 13.1 (Just Ok recommendation)
TE: Zach Ertz ($10,550,000) – 2.6 (Good recommendation)
Even with having just two out of four of my Bench recommendations be Good this week, I’ve still picked Good recommendations two-thirds (8 out of 12) of the time so far this season. The Good recommendations of Geno Smith who had 19.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (296 passing yards, -4 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 2-pt conversion) and finished as QB18 for the week, made it three for three in QB recommendations. The same is true at TE as Zach Ertz only had 2.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 6 receiving yards) to make him the third consecutive Good TE Bench recommendation.
The DJ Moore recommendation ended up being Just Ok, as he was a very low-end FLEX Starter with 13.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 41 receiving yards, 1 TD). That recommendation would have been Good if not for Moore’s 9-yard TD pass from Justin Fields ($4,717,989) with less than five minutes to go in the game and the Bears down by 38 points. Finally, the Miles Sanders recommendation was Bad as he was a top 10 RB with 17.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (24 rushing yards, 5 receptions, 38 receiving yards, 1 TD). That’s two Bad RB Bench recommendations in a row, so I’m staying away from Eagles and former Eagles this week.
Without further ado, let’s see which players I’m recommending you leave on your Dynasty Owner Bench (or Practice Squad) in Week 4.
Lamar Jackson (QB – BAL): Technically, Lamar Jackson ($52,000,000) is the QB13 in Dynasty Owner right now and his 87.8 ADP in 2023 Dynasty Owner startup drafts means he was the 15th QB taken on average. However, barring injury, there’s no chance that Russell Wilson ($48,517,647) finishes ahead of Lamar this season, so I’m choosing to ignore him being QB6 right now.
Honestly, I went with Lamar because I don’t think he’ll have a great game against the Browns solid defense, and nobody else in the top 12 stood out to me as having a really bad matchup. Mac Jones ($3,896,588) is QB9 right now, but his ADP was higher than Lamar’s (98.2) and he’s also unlikely to finish as a top 12 QB. I think Mac will likely struggle with Dallas’ defense, but picking him as a Bench QB wasn’t as much of a “recommendation” as saying to bench Lamar. Also, the Browns’ defense might be better now that Trevon Diggs is out for the season for Dallas as evidenced by how they played against Arizona.
Lamar has ripped off two good games in a row after being stymied by Houston and scoring just 5.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1. The Browns have allowed QBs to pass for only 408 yards in the first three games and rush for -8 yards. The -8 yards is very impressive, even if the QBs they have faced, Joe Burrow ($9,047,534), Kenny Pickett ($3,516,976) and Ryan Tannehill ($29,500,000) aren’t exactly known for running the ball as well as Lamar. Even if he has a decent game and scores around 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, it won’t be enough to be a starting QB so leave Lamar Jackson on your Dynasty Owner bench this week.
Joe Mixon (RB – CIN): So far this season, Joe Mixon ($5,750,000) has been getting by on quantity, not quality. He’s RB15 for the season so far, but is only averaging 4.0 yards per carry and 7.3 yards per reception. It’s just that he’s gotten 16, 17 and 20 touches in each of the first three games. All of those numbers are in line with his averages for the past couple of years as he’s been averaging over 20 touches per game in those seasons. With the Bengals playing Tennessee’s stout run defense in Week 4, I’m concerned that Mixon isn’t going to get the volume he needs to be a starting RB.
Tennessee is allowing just 2.7 yards per carry to RBs (58 carries for 156 rushing yards). Their yards per reception is higher at 9.4, but RBs have only caught 8 passes against them this season. Since the Titans are allowing 275.3 net passing yards per game and WRs to gain 230.0 receiving yards per game, I would expect Cincinnati to attack them by having Joe Burrow throw passes to his WR trio of Ja’Marr Chase ($7,704,910), Tee Higgins ($2,171,696) and Tyler Boyd ($10,750,000) instead of giving Mixon the ball 20 times.
Sorry Joe, but I’m going to have to recommend that you take a seat on the Dynasty Owner Bench. I traded for Mixon this off-season in my beta league, and I’m taking my own recommendation and having Mixon on my bench with Javonte Williams ($2,216,438) and Jerome Ford ($995,537) as my starting RBs and Kenneth Walker ($2,110,395) in the FLEX position.
Garrett Wilson (WR – NYJ): I had Garrett Wilson ($5,138,502) as a late first round Dynasty Owner startup draft pick with Aaron Rodgers ($37,500,000) at QB and he was with an ADP of 9.1. However, that was with Rodgers at QB. The sad reality is that with Zach Wilson ($8,787,670) at QB for the Jets, Garrett Wilson is the WR32 and a very low-end FLEX starter through the first three weeks of the 2023 season, with some average games but nothing worthy of being a first-round draft pick.
He has weeks with 14.4, 16.3 and 9.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and had to come up with an incredible catch to score his TD against Buffalo and had a 68-yard TD against Dallas in two of those average weeks. Now, Wilson has a tough shadow match-up against L’Jarius Sneed of the Chiefs who held DJ Moore to zero catches on three targets last week and Calvin Ridley ($11,116,000) to only 2 receptions and 32 receiving yards on seven targets in Week 2. Wilson needs help to be better than average against Sneed and Zach Wilson isn’t likely to be that help. That’s why I’m going back to it again here in Week 4, even though my Week 2 recommendation to Bench Wilson was Bad. Put Garrett Wilson on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Hunter Henry (TE – NE): Hunter Henry ($12,500,000) was the top scoring TE in Dynasty Owner in Week 1 with 16.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 56 receiving yards, 1 TD) and he followed it up with an even better Week 2 when he had 17.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions, 52 receiving yards, 1 TD). However, that stopped in Week 3 as the Jets held him to just 3.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 17 receiving yards). Not surprisingly, the Jets defense was the best one that Henry and the Patriots faced all season.
Now, the Patriots head down to Dallas to play the Cowboys and since Henry is still TE3 (and likely to stay in the top 12 for a couple of more weeks), I can choose him as the TE to leave on your Dynasty Owner Bench. Henry will still get targeted by Mac Jones as he has been targeted 18 times already this season. It’s just that I expect the same thing that happened in the Jets game to happen this week.
Just like for Joe Mixon, I’m putting Henry on my bench in another Dynasty Owner league and going with my starting lineup recommendation (Cole Turner) instead. This wasn’t planned at all. I have Turner in three leagues and Henry in two, but forgot that I have them together in League #80545 and was able to make that switch. Hopefully, it works out as I’m recommending.
Free Agent Auction Targets Update
Now it’s time to recap the players recommended in Jay’s weekly Free Agent Auction targets article and see how much their Dynasty Owner roster percentage has increased since the start of Week 4. Jay gave us six players this week, probably because one of the players in his top five was a kicker. Bonus content is always good, just like overtime and extra innings.
There have been two Free Agent Auction runs already this week – Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern) and Thursday at 5 AM (Eastern), so some Dynasty Owners have had two chances to go pick up these guys in the Free Agent Auction. Hope you bid enough if you wanted to get them!
| Player | Position | Team | Salary | Week 3 Roster % | Current Roster % | Change |
| Jameis Winston | QB | NO | $4,000,000 | 24.14% | 41.76% | 17.62% |
| Dontayvion Wicks | WR | GB | $1,035,637 | 34.87% | 37.93% | 3.06% |
| Kendrick Bourne | WR | NE | $5,000,000 | 69.73% | 72.80% | 3.07% |
| Melvin Gordon | RB | BAL | $1,165,000 | 36.02% | 52.49% | 16.47% |
| Matt Gay | K | IND | $5,625,000 | 65.90% | 67.43% | 1.53% |
| Kylen Granson | TE | IND | $1,046,592 | 68.20% | 69.35% | 1.15% |
Less Free Agent Auction activity compared to other players in previous weeks. In the Week 2 preview article, three players, including Bourne, were listed and went up by over 25 percentage points. Last week, both Josh Reynolds ($3,000,000) and Matt Breida ($1,400,000) went up by over 20 percentage points and both cleared the 80% rostered rate that disqualifies them from being selected again. This week, there are two players with an over-15 percentage point increase, and the rest are up less than 5 percentage points.
It’s not a surprise that few Dynasty Owners picked up Matt Gay, even though he had 30.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 3. His salary is second highest to Justin Tucker ($6,000,000) among kickers in Dynasty Owner and he was already rostered in almost two-thirds (65.9%) of leagues. Plus, he had just 11.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in the first two weeks combined and kickers are difficult to predict on a week-to-week basis. If another kicker were to get released, his roster percentage may increase more as Dynasty Owners see who’s available as a replacement.
The good news for you readers is that many of you still have a chance to go get these players in the Free Agent Auction. Happy bidding and hope everyone got who they wanted, even guys not on Jay’s list, in the Free Agent Auction.
Match-Up of the Week and Chase for the Ring Leaderboard
Are you missing the Dynasty Owner Match-Up of the Week and Chase for the Ring standings that used to appear here? Then head over and follow me on Twitter/X (@SteveVT33) to see what happened in Week 3. I went back to having only one Match-up of the Week for Week 3 after having two of them in Week 2. Reach out to me on Twitter/X if you’d like to be the Match-up of the Week sometime in the future.
The updated Chase for the Ring Leaderboard will also be posted on Twitter/X as well even though anyone can access it at https://app.dynastyowner.com/chase-for-the-ring. It’s updated live now, so your team name could pop up in the top 100 at any time.
Slightly longer versions of the Match-up of the Week and the Chase for the Ring Leaderboard will also appear on the Dynasty Owner thread on Reddit, as well as Facebook and Instagram on occasion. Plus, the Chase for the Ring leaderboard Top 10 will definitely appear in a weekly newsletter sent out on Fridays by Dynasty Owner.
Conclusion
The answer to the question in the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week section is Dolphins backup QB Mike White ($4,000,000) who was the Player of the Week in Week 8 of the 2021 season with 38.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points when he played for the Jets. It was only his second NFL game, even though he had been drafted in 2018, as he didn’t play until he came in to replace an injured Zach Wilson in Week 7.
Congratulations to you if you got the answer correct. No shame if you got it wrong as it wasn’t easy at all. It’s also not easy to win in Dynasty Owner so don’t get down if you have an 0-3 Dynasty Owner team. Everyone is playing against some of the best fantasy football players out there and you have to balance salaries and contracts in Dynasty Owner in addition to bye weeks and everything else in a “regular” dynasty fantasy football league. That’s what makes Dynasty Owner so challenging and rewarding if you make the playoffs and even sweeter if you make a League Championship game, win your League and appear on the Chase for the Ring leaderboard at the end of the season, or even sometime during the season.
If you were trying to decide whether to have some of these players in your Dynasty Owner starting lineup or even in your lineup in a non-Dynasty Owner league, regardless of whether you are ready to push the panic button on that team, maybe my analysis and recommendation helped you make the ultimate Start-Bench (or Start-Sit) decision. 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.
If you like, or dislike, these recommendations, think you can do better, or even agree and want everyone to know, please comment when this article is published by Dynasty Owner on Twitter/X, or like the article posted on Facebook, Instagram or Reddit and add your comment there. We appreciate the feedback from our fellow Dynasty Owners and I’m just happy that you took time to read my content and maybe even comment on it.
The Week 4 Free Agent Auction targets article was published on Tuesday and Jay Pounds will be back every Tuesday during the 2023 season with a list of five (and sometimes six as a bonus like this week) widely available players in Dynasty Owner to help everyone with their Free Agent Auction bids for the first Auction run of the week on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern). We also have the weekly Livestream with me and Dynasty Owner CEO Tim Peffer, which will be live on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 PM (Eastern) this week and likely for the rest of the 2023 season. Hopefully you can watch live or watched live if you are reading this after it aired. We had a lively debate last week between myself and 2021 Chase for the Ring Champion SKOL Vikings (aka Jeff Rachlin), so if you missed that episode, then go watch on the Dynasty Owner YouTube channel.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Steven Van Tassell is the Head of Content for Dynasty Owner
Follow us on Twitter/X: @SteveVT33 and @Dynasty_Owner