Looking Forward
By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
Most fantasy football players react to what happened last week instead of looking forward to what might happen next week. Ideally when bidding on players in the Free Agent Auction, Dynasty Owners would look more at what you think those players will do in Week 6 (and further) and less at what they did in Week 5. Unless someone has a fantasy football league in which you retroactively get points for players who you pick up later on, it doesn’t matter how many points a player scored last week. It’s true that there is some “past is present” and if a player played well in Week 5, it stands to reason that he might play well again in Week 6. Or circumstances might have led him to play well in Week 5 that have nothing to do with what’s going to happen in Week 6. Sometimes it works and the player does well again and sometimes it doesn’t.
We all know which team in every league will bid the most for whoever played the best last week. In my long-time redraft league, it’s a friend of mine who gets to the waiver wire at 8 AM every Tuesday when everyone not on a roster is available to grab for $5. He spends a lot of $5 bills every week and still hasn’t won the league because he focuses on what they did last week and not what they might do in the upcoming week.
It can be a little different in dynasty leagues and especially in Dynasty Owner because of the salary cap. A team can’t outbid every other team using Dynasty Dollars every week without dropping players or cutting salary. They can’t go get an expensive player like Russell Wilson ($48,517,647) who’s playing well to replace Mac Jones ($3,896,588) who isn’t unless that team has over $44.6 million in salary cap room. It’s one thing that makes Dynasty Owner unique and more difficult than other fantasy football leagues. It’s much harder for Dynasty Owners to pick up “streamers” every week to put in their Starting lineup or even on their Bench and replace them the next week with a different “streamer”.
However, this week and next week are a little bit different. This week, only two teams (Green Bay and Pittsburgh) are on bye while next week, we have six teams on bye (Carolina, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, New York Jets, Tennessee). Most Dynasty Owners won’t have a roster crunch and potentially have players on bye or who aren’t playing at all on their Bench this week, but they might be in that situation next week.
That’s why I’m advocating for Dynasty Owners to look forward to Week 7 sometime this week. Maybe not on Thursday or Friday, but do it on Saturday. Take a look at the Free Agent Auction and find available players who might have a role in Week 7. If you need a TE, see who’s playing against a team that’s bad against TEs and check to see if you can fit him on your Practice Squad. He might be your Bench TE (or even a Starting TE if you have multiple TEs on bye) in Week 7, but by acquiring him this week, you’ll beat the Free Agent Auction rush next Tuesday. Don’t worry, Jay Pounds will still have a Free Agent Auction targets article for you to read and enjoy, but when the Dynasty Owners in your league go hunting in the Free Agent Auction, they’ll all be saying “Wow! (TEAM NAME) already has (PLAYER NAME)” and have to move on to Plan B.
You might ask “Why is this important?” or “Does it matter if my team has a third string TE who might get 2.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on my Bench?” The answer – Yes, it does!
For example, my team in League #30326 was winning against Barbee Kilgore by 1.11 points going into Monday Night Football. If Viktor had a Bench RB on bye, I would have won the match-up. Instead, he had A.J. Dillon ($1,321,458) who was averaging 4.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game through four weeks. Viktor got lucky when Aaron Jones ($12,000,000) was declared inactive by Green Bay and Dillon started and scored 13.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. I ended up losing by 2.29 points as Dillon being on Viktor’s Bench gave him an additional 3.4 points.
This is not a perfect example as Viktor already had Dillon on his roster, but if he didn’t and didn’t pick anyone up during the week, he would have lost. Your Dynasty Owner team might be in a similar situation in Week 7. If you look forward to Week 7 before the final Free Agent Auction run of Week 6 on Sunday at 5 AM (Eastern), you are less likely to find yourself in jeopardy of losing a close match-up with a player putting up a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) on your Bench.
Speaking of looking forward, I hope that you are looking forward to reading the rest of my weekly preview article. This is the place where every week, 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 ($43,005,667) who is the overall top scoring player in Dynasty Owner after five weeks and looks good moving forward since he’s playing the Giants in Week 6 and Patriots in Week 7. Other players who are rostered in 100% (or nearly 100%) of Dynasty Owner leagues with low ADPs and have scored lots of Dynasty Owner fantasy points 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.
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, 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 October 12th. 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 6, let’s look at Week 5 and announce the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. This is a historic event as we have another first-time Player of the Week for the third consecutive week. However, that’s not the reason why this is a historic announcement. The reason why it’s so amazing for Dynasty Owner is that the Week 5 Dynasty Owner Player of the Week is the favorite player of our CEO Tim Peffer. That’s right, the winner is DJ Moore.
Depending on when you are reading this preview article, it’s been nearly a week or more since DJ Moore ($20,628,000) put up 55.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (8 receptions, 230 receiving yards, 3 TD) on the Washington Commanders. Moore held on to this award for the entire week and barely held off Ja’Marr Chase ($7,704,910) who had 52.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (15 receptions, 192 receiving yards, 3 TDs) on Sunday afternoon. The reason why Moore was the winner over Chase was the 6.0 point bonus that Dynasty Owner awards for 200+ receiving yards. After this week’s performance, Moore is now the WR4 for the 2023 season and his 5 TDs are more than he had in four of his five seasons in Carolina. Congratulations to DJ for being Tim’s favorite player and on his first Dynasty Owner Player of the Week award.
Week 5 Points: 55.0
2023 Salary: $20,628,000
Cost per Point: $375,055
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. It’s getting a little boring with the Value Player of the Week as we’ve only had three winners in five weeks. After Puka Nacua ($1,021,244) won his second award in three weeks, we have another player winning his second award in three weeks. If you remember who won back in Week 3, you’ll know that our Value Player of the Week is Brock Purdy.
Not only did Brock Purdy ($934,252) win the Value Player of the Week award but he had the most Dynasty Owner fantasy points (36.6) for a winner this year and the best cost per point ($25,526) as well. He barely had more points than Indianapolis RB Zack Moss ($1,153,079) who had 35.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (165 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 30 receiving yards, 2 TDs). Moss’s higher salary left his well behind Purdy in terms of value this week. Purdy is also the leader in the Value Player of the Year competition over Nacua, Moss and a host of other players with salaries in the $1 million range who are playing well so far. We’ll see if Nacua can reclaim this award in Week 6 or if Purdy wins his second in a row, third of the season and fourth overall. Only Aaron Jones has won the Value of the Week award four times, back when he made just $650,484 in the 2019 and 2020 seasons and one more win will put Purdy in a tie. Good luck to Brock on trying to become the most decorated value player in Dynasty Owner history!
Week 5 Points: 36.6
2023 Salary: $934,252
Cost per Point: $25,526
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Before we get into the weekly recommendations, I always look at how my previous week’s recommendations did (Good, Bad or Just Ok) and give a recap. Looking back, not forward, goes against this week’s article theme but I’m not going to break tradition so let’s see how I did in Week 5.
QB: Joshua Dobbs ($2,000,000) – 11.4 (Bad recommendation)
RB: Jaylen Warren ($857,333) – 10.9 (Just Ok recommendation)
WR: Josh Downs ($1,380,115) – 15.7 (Good recommendation)
TE: Tyler Conklin ($6,750,000) – 10.7 (Just Ok recommendation)
Everyone had double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points, which would seem to be a positive. However, when looking closer, it turned out that there was only one Good recommendation, two Just Ok recommendations and one Bad recommendation.
Not surprisingly, Joshua Dobbs getting only 11.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (166 passing yards, 1 rushing yard, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 1 lost fumble) at the QB position was Bad as he was tied with Ryan Tannehill ($29,500,000) as QB19 in Week 5. On the other hand, the other Josh who I picked last week (Josh Downs) had 15.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions for 97 receiving yards) to rank as WR18 and end up as a Good recommendation.
The non-Josh recommendations were both Just Ok. Jaylen Warren was a very low end RB2 for the week with 10.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (40 rushing yards, 3 receptions, 39 receiving yards) and Tyler Conklin was a low-end TE1 with 10.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 67 receiving yards). Even though both were low-end Starters, these recommendations were Just Ok since they would have been high-end Bench options if they scored just one fewer point. Not going to take a victory lap with such a small margin of “victory” so both of those recommendations were Just Ok.
That’s four weeks in a row with a single Good Starting lineup recommendation and while that’s better than none, I’m looking forward to having a week when all four of my Starting lineup recommendations are Good. Here are the players who I hope can get me that perfect record in Week 6.
Dak Prescott (QB – DAL): After last week’s 4.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance (153 passing yards, 2 rushing yards, 1 TD, 3 INTs), Dak Prescott ($40,000,000) could use a game against a bad defense. He gets exactly what he needs in Week 6 as Dallas goes to Los Angeles to face the Chargers on Monday Night Football.
The Chargers are unquestionably one of the worst defenses in the NFL as they are allowing the most passing yards per game (299.8) and 26.0 points per game to their opponents. Even though they have played one fewer game than most teams, they have given up the eighth most passing yards to QBs on the season. They have allowed an average of 27.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to opposing QBs and that includes Week 4 when they got to face Raiders rookie QB Aidan O’Connell ($1,087,345) in his NFL debut. O’Connell had just 8.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points but did throw for 238 yards. He was just undone by an interception and three fumbles (two lost).
Dak has two bad games this season so far, two average ones and just one when he scored 26.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 2 against the Jets when he was worth being in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup. He’ll make it two Starting lineup worthy games this week and you’ll want him in your Starting lineup for it.
Kenneth Gainwell (RB – PHI): I should really pick a Kansas City RB as the Broncos have been just awful against RBs this season, but I don’t have faith in either Jerick McKinnon ($1,317,500) or Clyde Edwards-Helaire ($2,705,393) to put them here. I will say that CEH might get some garbage time runs like he did against Chicago and had 12.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (55 rushing yards, 1 reception, 2 receiving yards, 1 TD) to be worth a Bench play. Not going to do recommend starting him though.
Instead, I’ll take Kenneth Gainwell ($953,882) who was the Eagles’ lead RB in Week 1, but got hurt and lost his job to D’Andre Swift ($2,134,729). In Week 1, Gainwell played a majority (62%) of the team’s offensive snaps, but after missing Week 2 with an injury, it’s been Swift in the lead role and Gainwell playing about two-fifths of the snaps. Gainwell has scored some points in each of the past three weeks, it’s just not been many (14.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points combined) and his average yards per touch is pretty awful at just 3.55 yards per touch (47 touches for 167 yards). That includes a measly 4.9 yards per reception (8 receptions for 39 receiving yards) and 3.3 yards per rushing attempt (39 attempts for 128 rushing yards).
The Jets’ defense isn’t great against RBs as they have allowed them to run for 534 yards in five games and average 4.2 yards per carry. Their overall yards per carry average is 4.5 which ranks 25th overall. They have also allowed 31 RB receptions, which is tied for second most behind Green Bay. Gainwell has been playing enough and got 6 touches in Week 4 and 8 touches in Week 5. He just needs to break one of those touches for some yardage and I think it’ll happen this week. Get him into your Starting lineup so your Dynasty Owner team gets the full benefit.
Darnell Mooney (WR – CHI): The list of potential weapons for Bears QB Justin Fields ($4,717,989) got smaller last week after their Thursday Night Football victory over the Washington Commanders as the team traded WR Chase Claypool ($1,654,156) to the Dolphins and announced that RB Khalil Herbert ($902,677) is doubtful with a high ankle sprain. That provides an opportunity for Darnell Mooney ($894,263) to jumpstart his season.
Mooney has been playing a lot as the only week he played less than 70% of the team’s offensive snaps was back in Week 2 so he’ll be on the field. The Vikings have allowed the most receptions and receiving yards to opposing WRs this season (90 receptions for 1,048 receiving yards). That’s an average of 18 receptions for 209.6 receiving yards. D.J. Moore isn’t going to get all of those receptions and receiving yards so some will fall Mooney’s way. The Vikings’ slot cornerback is also being targeted one-third (34%) of the time when aligned against a receiver this season and Mooney is the Bears’ primary slot receiver. Mooney should have the opportunity to do well this week and as long as he avoids getting shut out again like he did in Week 5 when he was targeted four times but still put up a Blutarsky, he’ll be worth using as a Starting WR for your Dynasty Owner team.
Cade Otton (TE – TB): It’s been an up and down season so far for Cade Otton ($1,123,486). He had two games with very little production – Week 1 versus Minnesota with just 3.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 19 receiving yards) and Week 3 versus Philadelphia with 2.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception for 16 receiving yards). He’s also had two games with just over 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points – Week 2 versus Chicago with 6 receptions for 41 receiving yards (10.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) and Week 4 versus New Orleans with 3 receptions for 13 receiving yards and a TD (10.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). That adds up to a total of 26.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and a ranking of TE25 for the season.
Of course, that ranking is low because Tampa Bay had their bye week already, but he’d barely be in the top 20 on a per game average basis. However, Tampa Bay is playing Detroit this week and the Lions have allowed the second most receiving yards to TEs this season (353 yards) while not playing against a single top 12 TE. They did play Kansas City in Week 1, but Travis Kelce ($14,312,500) was injured and didn’t play. The Lions still allowed his backups, Noah Gray ($948,444) and Blake Bell ($1,165,000) to combine for 15.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 43 receiving yards, 1 TD).
Speaking of backup TEs, none of Otton’s backups in Tampa Bay have scored a single Dynasty Owner fantasy point this season. David Wells ($870,000) does have two receptions, but for -10 receiving yards and a fumble so he’s stuck at zero. It’s very likely that all of the Buccaneers’ TE production in Week 6 comes from Otton and with Detroit’s less than stellar defense against TEs so far in 2023, Otton seems like a solid bet for double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points. That’s worth a spot in your Starting lineup.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
Now it’s the time to look at how each of my Bench recommendations from Week 5 worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok).
QB: Russell Wilson ($48,517,647) – 22.7 (Just Ok recommendation)
RB: Kyren Williams ($992,601) – 7.7 (Good recommendation)
WR: Courtland Sutton ($15,200,000) – 2.3 (Good recommendation)
TE: Cole Kmet ($1,894,445) – 14.2 (Bad recommendation)
As usual, I’m doing better with my Bench recommendations than Starting lineup recommendations for the season and also this week. It was a solid week of TE play and the 14.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 42 receiving yards, 1 TD, 1 fumble) that Cole Kmet put up only had him as TE9 for the week. That was still enough points to make that a Bad recommendation. On the flip side, Kyren Williams did not have a TD as predicted, but did average 4.1 yards per carry (13 carries for 53 yards) which was above his 3.8 yards per carry average for the season. I split on those, but he only came up with 2 receptions for 4 yards plus the 53 rushing yards to give him a total of 7.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Not enough so he should have been on your Bench and therefore, my recommendation was Good.
It was a mixed bag on the two Broncos as Russell Wilson was perfectly average with 22.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (196 passing yards, 49 rushing yards, 2 TDs, 2 fumbles – 1 lost) while Courtland Sutton only caught 1 out of 3 targets for 13 receiving yards and 2.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Wilson was QB14 for the week as ten QBs had over 25.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. I’m calling that recommendation Just Ok as he was on the low-end Starter/high-end Bench cusp for the week. Recommending Sutton for the Bench was Good obviously as 2.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points doesn’t cut it for a guy with a $15.2 million salary.
I’m looking at just Week 6 with these Bench recommendations. Not ahead despite the title of the article.
C.J. Stroud (QB – HOU): Chalk this pick up to two things. First, he’s due for a bad game as a rookie QB and second, I couldn’t really find anyone else in the top 12 QBs to recommend as a Bench pick this week. Therefore, C.J. Stroud ($9,069,811) is my Bench recommendation.
I’ll start by telling you how good Stroud has been this year. He’s QB11 in Dynasty Owner with 119.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, over 240 yards passing in all five games, no interceptions, and passing TDs in each of his past four games. The only game that he didn’t have a passing TD was Week 1 against the Ravens and he also had a season-low of 242 passing yards that week as well.
Speaking of good, the New Orleans defense has been good this season. They have given up the fourth fewest passing yards per game (183.0 yards per game) and are tied for third in most interceptions with 7. Last week, they held Mac Jones to 110 passing yards, picked him off twice and forced a fumble (and recovered the fumble) for a total of -3.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Admittedly, Jones and the Patriots offense have been awful for the past two weeks, but a shutout is a shutout, and the Saints defense deserves some credit for it.
Under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn’t have taken Stroud, but none of the other top QBs are likely to do worse than him and I have to pick someone this week. Therefore, I’m recommending that Dynasty Owners leave Stroud on their Bench this week.
Jerome Ford (RB – CLE): The Browns’ schedule hasn’t done any favors to Jerome Ford ($995,537) ever since the season ending injury to Nick Chubb ($12,200,000). He’s had to play Tennessee, a top 10 defense against the run this year and the best in 2022, Baltimore without Deshaun Watson ($46,000,000) at QB so the Ravens could focus on stopping him and the running game, then a bye week and now the 49ers who have the second best run defense this year and finished second to Tennessee last year. And he might have to do it with P.J. Walker ($2,075,000) at QB. Yikes!
It’s difficult to run against the 49ers because their defense is good, and their offense has scored 30 or more points in every game this season and have been ahead by double digits by the early fourth quarter in every game. As a result, RBs have only attempted 59 rushes for 217 yards (3.7 yards per carry). It’s been better through the air as RBs have caught 30 passes for 170 yards. The 49ers defense has also given up 3 TDs to RBs so far this season, but two were to Kyren Williams back in Week 2 and Williams only had 52 rushing yards. Including that big performance from Williams (28.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), the 49ers have only given up an average of 16.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game to RBs.
Not sure Ford is going to find running room this week and his chance to get some receptions and receiving yards is significantly decreased if Walker is the Browns’ QB. Especially if the Browns start working Kareem Hunt ($1,350,000) into the offense more. So many things working against Ford this week so I’m recommending that you leave him on your Dynasty Owner Bench.
DeVonta Smith (WR – PHI): With the Eagles playing the Jets and their pair of top cornerbacks, it stands to reason that one (or both) of the Eagles top WRs will struggle. Since both of them are Starting WRs in Dynasty Owner, I get to pick DeVonta Smith ($5,035,348) instead of A.J. Brown ($25,000,000) as the one to leave on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Both of them are mainly perimeter receivers which are the receivers that the Jets defense excels at stopping. Smith has two games in which he’s been better as a Bench WR including just 1.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception for 6 receiving yards) last week against the Rams. Brown’s worst game came in Week 2 when the Vikings held him to just 6.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 29 receiving yards). In addition, Brown has far more targets this season than Smith (51 for Brown versus 34 for Smith). I know I’m saying to look forward, but since both of them are playing against the same team and cornerbacks, it’s useful to see which WR Jalen Hurts ($1,506,293) favors and it’s clearly Brown.
Brown is WR8 and Smith is WR26 for the 2023 season so far. Both are usually in your Starting lineup, but I’d put Smith on my Dynasty Owner Bench this week and would temper my expectations for Brown as well.
Sam LaPorta (TE – DET): Using the same theory as above with C.J. Stroud in that it’s going to be hard for Sam LaPorta ($2,366,498) to remain the TE1 for all season and at some point, he’s going to have a bad game. Looking ahead, it might come next week versus Baltimore, but it’ll also come this week against Tampa Bay.
I’m not predicting a Blutarsky for LaPorta, but think he’ll have a tough time finding the end zone against the Buccaneers who have let to allow a TE to score a TD this season. They have played three of the top 8 TEs so far as well with T.J. Hockenson ($9,392,000) putting up 11.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, Cole Kmet ($1,894,445) only scoring 7.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and Dallas Goedert ($14,250,000) getting 9.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points against them. Overall, they are allowing an average of 7.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per week to TEs and if LaPorta hits that mark, he’ll fall short of being a Starting TE. If he does, it may end up being Just Ok as he may be a high-end Bench option.
If you have LaPorta paired with a high salary, high performance TE1 already, then congratulations for drafting well as you probably got LaPorta in the second round of your rookie draft (16.6 rookie draft ADP). If so, then you might think about using LaPorta as your FLEX this week and keeping that TE1 in your lineup, especially if it’s Kelce, Hockenson or Mark Andrews ($14,000,000). Don’t do it! Take the safe route and leave LaPorta on your Bench this week.
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 6. Jay gave us his usual five players this week and unlike last week when he recommended picking up Deven Thompkins ($787,500) even though he was on bye in Week 5, there are no players on a Week 6 bye who appeared on his list.
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 5 Roster % | Current Roster % | Change |
| Logan Thomas | TE | WAS | $8,021,667 | 22.22% | 48.66% | 26.44% |
| Tyler Conklin | TE | NYJ | $6,750,000 | 47.51% | 49.04% | 1.53% |
| Nelson Agholor | WR | BAL | $3,250,000 | 15.33% | 14.56% | -0.77% |
| Trenton Irwin | WR | CIN | $825,000 | 4.21% | 6.90% | 2.69% |
| Craig Reynolds | RB | DET | $1,080,000 | 36.02% | 37.93% | 1.91% |
It appears that not many Dynasty Owners wanted anybody on Jay’s list except Logan Thomas. Thomas saw his roster percentage shoot up over 25 percentage points, while nobody else had an increase of even three percentage points. In a historic first, Nelson Agholor was actually dropped in more leagues than he was picked up in and his roster percentage dropped slightly. Both Odell Beckham Jr. ($15,000,000) and Rashod Bateman ($3,149,853) returned to the Ravens’ lineup in Week 5, but both played fewer snaps than Agholor and combined for fewer Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5.1 for Beckham and Bateman vs. 9.4 for Agholor). Jay thinks he was looking forward to Week 6 with his target players, but Dynasty Owners apparently don’t agree with him on four out of five players.
Both Trenton Irwin and Craig Reynolds could still be picked up by more Dynasty Owners and should be if the playing status of both Tee Higgins ($2,171,696) and Jahmyr Gibbs ($4,461,283) doesn’t improve significantly before Sunday. Neither Higgins nor Gibbs played last week, which led to the Week 5 performances of Irwin and Reynolds that landed both of them on Jay’s target list.
Even though Logan Thomas is nearly $1.3 million more in salary than Tyler Conklin and has scored 8.2 more Dynasty Owner fantasy points despite missing Week 3 against Buffalo, I was still surprised to see Thomas picked up in so many more Dynasty Owner leagues than Conklin. Conklin is four years younger and has missed only one game in his 5+ years in the NFL. Thomas has already missed a game this season and 14 games over the past two seasons. Dynasty Owners may have given more weight to the fact that Thomas outscored Conklin by 9.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points last week (19.7 for Thomas vs. 10.7 for Conklin). We’ll find out who is better in Week 6 and beyond soon enough.
Since all five players on Jay’s target list are still rostered in less than 50% of Dynasty Owner leagues, there’s still time to look at their Week 6 and 7 match-ups to see if you should put in a late week bid to secure the services of any of these players. 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? Did you notice that neither one was published for Week 5? If you want to see them again, then head over and follow me on Twitter/X (@SteveVT33) and also send over one of your match-ups to be featured for Week 6. I’ll post the best one I get for Week 6 or will be forced to find a good match-up in one of my Dynasty Owner leagues.
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. Check it out before things change during the Thursday Night Football game since the leaderboard is live and can change at any time. That means your team name could pop up in the top 100 during the game.
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
While it might be difficult to look forward to Week 7 before Week 6 has even started, or even if you’re reading this after the Thursday night game is finished, Dynasty Owners would be well served by doing so. It may provide them with the advantage that they need to win their Week 7 match-up when probably everyone’s Dynasty Owner team will be hobbled with multiple players on bye. The same scenario will play out again later this season in Week 13 when six more teams are on bye (Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Las Vegas, Minnesota, New York Giants). You could argue that better teams are on bye with more prominent fantasy players than Week 7 and with the stakes possibly magnified at the end of the season, it might be even more important to look forward during Week 12 than now. It might also be more difficult as Week 12 is Thanksgiving week with three games on Thanksgiving plus the Amazon Friday afternoon game. If Dynasty Owners wait until Saturday of Week 12 to look ahead, eight teams will have already played.
Talk about “looking forward”. I’m already mentioning Week 12 and Week 13 when it’s just Week 6 and in the famous words of Jim Mora, some Dynasty Owners are just hoping to win a game. Hopefully all of my teams (and your teams as well) will be in playoff contention at that point of the season, won’t have thrown away any games and it’ll matter if they can win. Feel free to reach out to me or Dynasty Owner on Twitter/X, or post on Facebook, Instagram or Reddit and let your fellow Dynasty Owners know if you’re looking forward to Week 7 or just staying focused on Week 6. You can also comment in all of those places when this article is published and let everyone know if you like, or dislike, my weekly recommendations, think you can do better and have players who you’re planning on bidding on in the Free Agent Auction in anticipation of Week 7. You can even agree, like the article and add your comments on any of those social media platforms. We appreciate the feedback from our fellow Dynasty Owners.
The Week 6 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 at least five 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. Usually, it’s on Thursday afternoons at 4:00 PM (Eastern), but we had to move it up to Noon this week. Hopefully you can watch live, or maybe you’re reading this and watching it at the same time or watched live if you are reading this after it aired. If you missed this week’s episode or want to see previous ones, 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