Scrambling
By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
When the 2023 NFL schedule came out and especially after the first couple of weeks of the season, fantasy football managers were looking at this week (Week 10) with a feeling of dread because three high-scoring teams (Chiefs, Dolphins, and Eagles) being on bye. The Rams are also on bye in Week 10 but other than Cooper Kupp ($26,700,000) at the schedule announcement and Puka Nacua ($1,021,244) and Kyren Williams ($992,601) after the first week or two, there weren’t a lot of Rams’ players who people thought they’d really be missing in their lineup. However, I can think of a dozen players on the Chiefs, Dolphins or Eagles who Dynasty Owners would be impacted by them being on bye.
However, at least to me, it felt like Week 9 ended up being a more difficult bye week than Week 10. For all four Week 9 bye teams (49ers, Broncos, Jaguars, Lions), there are five or more highly rostered and relevant Dynasty Owner players per team meaning that there were at least 20 players who needed to be replaced in Starting lineups or Bench spots. That’s compared with about 15 or so players for Week 10.
As a result of this phenomenon plus because of the rash of injuries that I discussed last week, I really had to scramble to find players in multiple Dynasty Owner leagues (and other fantasy football leagues that I’m in on other platforms) to insert into my Week 9 lineups. It meant that I made more Free Agent Auction bids, waiver claims and use more of my Free Agent Acquisition Budget in Week 9 than any other week so far. For Week 9, I made a total of 11 Free Agent Auction bids across all of my Dynasty Owner leagues, including eight on Saturday and Sunday alone. In comparison, I made a total of 22 Free Agent Auction bids in the previous four weeks once NFL bye weeks started and have only made two bids so far in Week 10. I may end up making a couple more Week 10 bids, but it’ll be far fewer than last week.
In addition, some of the Week 9 Free Agent Auction bids seemed pretty desperate, like having to grab Rams QB Brett Rypien ($1,080,000) to fill a Bench QB spot in more than one Dynasty Owner league and in the SuperFlex spot in a non-Dynasty Owner league. I had to bid on Tommy DeVito ($901,667) to replace Rypien in one Dynasty Owner league and didn’t even win as someone else bid $4 million Dynasty Dollars for his services while I only bid $1 million. I went cheap since I’m not sure DeVito will do much against the Cowboys’ defense, so the scrambling for a Bench QB for that team continues. Fortunately, I had Kyler Murray ($46,100,000) coming back in the non-Dynasty Owner league, so I don’t need DeVito there.
I was surprised by how much work I had to do last week to fill out my Dynasty Owner Bench spots with players who at least had a chance to score some points and that I’ve had less work to do (so far) this week. Let me know on Twitter/X which week you’ve had to scramble to fill more Dynasty Owner lineup holes in or if it’s a future week, like Week 13 when six teams (Bills, Bears, Giants, Raiders, Ravens, and Vikings) are on bye.
What I didn’t have to do this week was scramble to get out this weekly preview article and recommendations for 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 recommendation to go ahead and start Josh Allen ($43,005,667) this week as he’s the only player in the top 5 overall scorers who’s not on bye. Other players who have scored lots of Dynasty Owner fantasy points and are at the top of the overall rankings 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 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 November 9th. 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 10, let’s look at Week 9 and announce the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. It’s another first time winner and the second rookie winner this season. It’s not a surprise who won the award this week so I’m not going to drag it out because only one player had over 400 passing yards and more than 3 TDs in Week 9. The Dynasty Owner Player of the Week was C.J. Stroud.
C.J. Stroud ($9,069,811) had a career game in Week 9. And I’m not talking about a career game for a guy who’s NFL career is just eight games. I’m talking about a career game for guys who have played eight years in the NFL. Stroud had the highest scoring game of the 2023 NFL season with 62.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (470 passing yards, 10 rushing yards, 5 TDs, 1 2-pt. conversion, 1 fumble) and the second highest scoring game in Dynasty Owner history. He got 7.0 bonus points with 4.0 points for having over 400 passing yards and 3.0 bonus points for the 15 yard touchdown pass with six seconds left in the Texans’ 39-37 victory over the Buccaneers. His 470 passing yards was the most by a QB so far this season and the most passing yards in a single game by a rookie in NFL history. He was also the first player to have 5 TD passes in a single game during the 2023 season. It was a historical game for Stroud and capped off with the first Dynasty Owner Player of the Week award of his career.
Week 9 Points: 62.5
2023 Salary: $9,069,811
Cost per Point: $145,117
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. In contrast to the Player of the Week award that has been won by a different player every week this year, the Value Player of the Week award had only been won by four players over the first eight weeks of the 2023 season. Make it five now as the player who caught the previously mentioned game-winning 15 yard touchdown pass from C.J. Stroud ended up being the Value Player of the Week for Week 9. That’s right, your winner is Tank Dell.
Slightly overshadowed by Stroud’s performance was the fact that Tank Dell ($1,244,382) had the best game of his rookie season in Week 9 with 33.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions, 114 receiving yards, 2 rushing yards, 51 return yards, 2 TDs). Dell did it all, except break a big punt return as I predicted in last week’s article. He did have one punt return for 7 yards and two kickoff returns for a total of 44 yards, so he got an extra 1.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points from return yardage. It was Dell’s third game of the season with more than 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. The Houston passing offense was so good that two Texans receivers, Noah Brown ($2,600,000) and Dalton Schultz ($6,250,000), had more receiving yards than Dell, while Schultz also had more receptions. It was the game-winning TD that sealed this award for Dell as it earned him 11.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. There were several other players who had good weeks with low salaries, but none of them were better than Tank Dell who won with the highest salary ever for a Value Player of the Week.
Week 9 Points: 33.9
2023 Salary: $1,244,382
Cost per Point: $36,707
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Before we get into the weekly recommendations, let’s take a look at my previous week’s recommendations, see how they did (Good, Bad or Just Ok), and give a recap.
QB: Mac Jones ($3,896,588) – 14.3 (Bad recommendation)
RB: Chuba Hubbard ($1,048,294) – 9.7 (Just Ok recommendation)
WR: Tank Dell ($1,244,382) – 33.9 (Good recommendation)
TE: Cade Otton ($1,123,486) – 25.0 (Good recommendation)
While it wasn’t the four Good recommendations that I was looking for, I managed to have my second best week of the season, behind only Week 1. I had two Good recommendations which included recommending that the Value Player of the Week be in your Starting lineup before he scored the season-high in Dynasty Owner fantasy points for any recommended player. Cade Otton also had a great week with as many TDs as Dell and also a clutch TD reception of 14 yards with 46 seconds left in the Buccaneers loss. Otton finished as TE2 for the week with 25.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions, 70 receiving yards, 2 TD, 1 lost fumble). He would have been TE1 without the lost fumble.
On the other hand, we had two non-Good recommendations. Chuba Hubbard was a Just Ok recommendation at RB with 9.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (58 rushing yards, 4 receptions, 9 receiving yards, 1 fumble). That was good enough for a low RB2 finish for the week and a Just Ok recommendation. Not quite enough production to be a Good recommendation because he didn’t get his predicted TD. Even as the volume was there with 20 touches (16 rushing attempts, 4 pass receptions). Finally, we had Mac Jones score just 14.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (220 passing yards, 3 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) to finish as QB18 in Dynasty Owner for Week 9 and a mid-range Bench QB, so that recommendation was Bad.
Even though I had to scramble for those picks last week, they ended up being pretty good. I’m going to try and do better this week and here are the recommendations of four players who I think should be in your Starting lineup in Week 10.
Taylor Heinicke (QB – ATL): Taylor Heinicke ($7,000,000) may be the player who I’ve recommended the most in these weekly preview articles. As a member of the Washington Football Team/Commanders in 2021 and 2022, I recommended him four times with pretty decent results (2 Good, 1 Just Ok, 1 Bad recommendations). The last time was in Week 8 of the 2022 season, and he rewarded me with a 28.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance and a coveted Good recommendation. That’s not why he’s my pick in Week 10 though.
It’s because while he hasn’t been great, he’s been pretty good and with some of the low-end QBs starting this week for the Bears, Jets, Giants and Raiders and three of the top four QBs on bye – Jalen Hurts ($1,506,293), Patrick Mahomes ($45,000,000) and Tua Tagovailoa ($7,568,859) – all I need Heinicke to be is a little above average. I’m defining that as at least 18.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, which he has achieved in a dozen games during his career. So far, in six quarters of action this year, he has scored 34.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, including 18.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (268 passing yards, 20 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) last week.
The Falcons travel to Arizona to play the Cardinals in Week 10 and the Cardinals defense has been allowing QBs to play a little above average this season. They have allowed an average of 23.06 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to starting QBs this season and at least 15.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to all nine starting QBs who have faced them. Heinicke should be able to pull off a slightly above average game and score in the low 20s in Dynasty Owner fantasy points. That’ll be enough to be a top 10 QB this week, so Dynasty Owners should get him in their Starting lineups.
Ezekiel Elliott (RB – NE): I tried to avoid this choice, but didn’t feel like there were many options this week. Many of the teams playing bad run defenses have a solid RB1 who’s firmly in the top 24 RBs. The exception are the Bears who are playing Carolina, but while all three of their primary RBs are ranked outside of the top 40 RBs, I’m not sure if the leader of the Bears’ backfield will be D’Onta Foreman ($2,000,000), Khalil Herbert ($902,677) or Roschon Johnson ($1,152,172), so I’m going to punt on them.
One of the worst run defenses in the NFL is the Indianapolis Colts, as evidenced by my Chuba Hubbard pick here last week, which only worked out Just Ok. However, I’m hanging my hat on the fact that the Colts have allowed 12 TDs to RBs this season and gave up 2 TDs and 18.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to veteran RB Kareem Hunt ($1,350,000) back in Week 7.
Ezekiel Elliott ($3,000,000) is another veteran RB, but one who has just two TDs all season and only one game with more than 40 rushing yards. His yards per carry is ok at 3.8, but his yards per reception is freakishly low at 4.6 (16 receptions for 74 receiving yards). However, with a multitude of injured WRs, I would expect the Patriots to try and run over the Colts defense and throw checkdown passes to the RBs. That’s good news for Rhamondre Stevenson ($1,057,264) and my desire to have a Patriots player win the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week or Value Player of the Week award sometime this year.
It’s also good news for Dynasty Owners with Elliott on their rosters. Don’t get me wrong, he’s highly unlikely to be Player of the Week, but he has a great chance of scoring a TD and getting enough rushing attempts and targets to exceed his best game so far as a Patriot (11.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). Be like me and wake up early on Sunday to watch the Patriots and Colts play in Germany and see if this recommendation to put Elliott in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup is correct.
Kyle Phillips (WR – TEN): The identity of the #2 receiver in Tennessee is a complete mystery. Clearly the #1 receiver is D’Andre Hopkins ($13,000,000). It’s not even close as Hopkins has 29 more targets, 11 more receptions and 340 more receiving yards in 8 games than any other Titans’ receiver.
If you look at draft capital and potential, it’s clearly Treylon Burks ($3,592,398), but he suffered a concussion at the end of the Titans-Steelers Week 9 game and didn’t practice this Wednesday. He’s also only suited up in five games so far and scored just 21.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (8 receptions, 122 receiving yards, 14 rushing yards) on just 18 targets.
Based on season-long data, you could argue that it’s either Nick Westbrook-Ikhine ($1,260,000) or Chigoziem Okonkwo ($1,041,085). Both have played in all eight games, but while Okonkwo has more targets and receptions, Westbrook-Ikhine has scored 3 TDs compared to none for Okonkwo and also has more receiving yards. That means Westbrook-Ikhine has scored 58.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (7.3 points per game) compared to 41.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5.2 points per game) for Okonkwo.
However, over the past two games with Will Levis ($2,385,542) at QB for the Titans, it’s arguably been Kyle Philips ($993,331). Philips has been targeted 8 times for 16.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in the two games with Levis at QB. That’s more Dynasty Owner fantasy points than any Titans receiver not named D’Andre Hopkins and more targets than any besides Hopkins and Okonkwo.
That’s good enough for me as the Titans face the Buccaneers pass defense that allowed three Houston Texans receivers to have over 100 receiving yards and more than 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points last week. It seems likely that at least one Titans’ receiver not named Hopkins will score double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points and be worth having in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup. My bet is on Kyle Philips.
Gerald Everett (TE – TB): The injuries to Chargers’ receivers continue to mount as Josh Palmer ($1,258,110) just joined Mike Williams ($20,000,000) on Injured Reserve. It’s time for rookie first round NFL Draft pick Quentin Johnston ($3,547,195) to step it up, but through eight games played, he hasn’t done much with just 24 targets (3 per game) and 27.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3.38 points per game).
Enter Gerald Everett ($6,000,000) who’s also been injured and missed the Chargers’ Week 8 game against the Bears. He hasn’t done a ton this season yet, with just 48.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in seven games played (6.87 points per game) and just two games with barely over 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. However, I think that’s going to change in Week 10 against Detroit.
The Lions are in the top third in receptions, receiving yards and receiving TDs allowed to TEs this season. Back in Week 7, they allowed Mark Andrews to score 22.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions, 63 receiving yards, 2 TDs) in admittedly their worst defensive performance of the season. Even with their recent injuries, the Chargers have more offensive firepower than the Ravens, but someone other than Keenan Allen ($20,025,000) and Austin Ekeler ($6,125,000) is going to have to step up to help Justin Herbert ($6,644,689) out. My pick is Everett, so I’m recommending that his Dynasty Owners get him into their Starting lineups this week.
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 9 worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok).
QB: Tua Tagovailoa ($7,568,859) – 15.3 (Good recommendation)
RB: Alexander Mattison ($3,500,000) – 17.3 (Bad recommendation)
WR: DJ Moore ($20,620,000) – 4.4 (Good recommendation)
TE: Logan Thomas ($8,021,667) – 7.1 (Good recommendation)
This was also my second best week of recommendations. I guess while I was scrambling for players for my own Dynasty Owner teams, I had to look more closely at Week 9 matchups and made some solid Bench recommendations too. Let’s start with the only Bad recommendation. That was Alexander Mattison who was a top 12 RB for Week 9 with 17.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (44 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 49 receiving yards, 1 TD). It was his second best game of the season, and he was helped by the season-ending left Achilles injury to Cam Akers ($1,543,259).
The other three Bench recommendations were Good, and I hope Dynasty Owners with these players heeded my warnings about them. At QB, Tua Tagovailoa was QB17 for the week with just 15.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (193 passing yards, 7 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 fumble). Logan Thomas was targeted six times, but only caught four of them for 31 receiving yards. His 7.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points was barely enough to make him a Bench TE this week as six TEs had more than 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and you needed your TE to score at least 13.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to have a top 12 performer. Finally, it was another difficult week for DJ Moore without Justin Fields ($4,717,989) at QB. Moore only had 4.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 44 receiving yards, 1 fumble – lost) and should have probably been on most Dynasty Owners’ Practice Squad.
If I can have another week with three Good Bench recommendations, my Good recommendations record will be at .500 for the season. Here goes with my four recommendations for players to leave on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Dak Prescott (QB – DAL): Dak Prescott has been playing very well recently with 39.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and 38.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in the Cowboys’ two games since their Week 7 bye. He’s moved up to QB10 for the entire 2023 season. Why is he here?
Well, when the Cowboys don’t need Prescott to pass much, they don’t have him pass much. In three blowouts, which I’m defining as a game that the Cowboys won or lost by 30 or more points, Prescott has thrown an average of 27.3 passes for 185.7 passing yards per game. He’s had a total of 31.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (10.47 points per game) in those three games.
This week’s game against the Giants could be as much of a blowout as Week 1 when the Cowboys romped by a final score of 40-0. Especially with Danny DeVito at QB for the Giants. Sorry, I meant to type undrafted rookie free agent Tommy DeVito at QB for the G-Men, not the diminutive comedy actor. I’m not giving the Giants much of a chance at all to score points with DeVito at QB, so there will be little need for Prescott to throw the ball and thus, he won’t accumulate many Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Because of that, I’m recommending that Dynasty Owners leave Prescott on their Bench this week.
Alvin Kamara (RB – NO): Both Alvin Kamara ($15,000,000) and Jamaal Williams ($4,000,000) are negatively impacted the most by the emergence of NFL Swiss Army knife Taysom Hill ($10,000,000) as the Saints’ best red zone threat. Williams has only played in five games and scored a mere 18.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points with zero TDs, so he can’t be listed here. Therefore, the spot goes to Kamara who is RB8 for the season despite missing the first three games of the season due to a suspension.
Kamara has been solid and averaged 20.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game (124.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in six games played) but “only” has three TDs, which is one fewer than the number of rushing and receiving TDs for Hill. While it’s possible that Hill could throw a TD pass to Kamara, that scenario is less likely than Hill taking the goal line rushing attempt or catching a short TD pass from inside the 10-yard line instead of Kamara or Williams.
Last week, Kamara had his worst game of the 2023 season with 11.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (26 rushing yards, 4 receptions, 44 receiving yards) and by far, his fewest number of touches in a single game (13). Not only that, but the Vikings are an above average defense at stopping RBs with barely over 100 yards per game in total offense (100.6) and 5 TDs allowed to RBs. Since Kamara is splitting that work with Hill who had 15 touches (11 rushing attempts and 4 receptions) last week, it’s looking more likely that Kamara has a similar game to last week than his season-long averages.
That’s why I’m recommending you find a better option for your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup. Put Kamara in that Bench RB spot and hopefully it works out for your team.
Davante Adams (WR – LV): He’s not happy. He’s got a rookie in Aidan O’Connell ($1,087,345) at QB and he’s playing under a new head coach and offensive coordinator. All of those things are working against Davante Adams ($28,000,000) this week. Plus, he has scored fewer than 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in four out of his last five games. Hence, the unhappiness.
Plus, Adams and the Raiders have to play Sauce Gardner, D.J. Reed and the Jets’ defense that is doing their job to keep the Jets in the playoff picture despite the team’s offensive ineptitude. Opposing WRs are averaging 10 receptions and 101.5 receiving yards against the Jets this season. That’s all of the team’s WRs, not just their top WR or perimeter/slot receivers. All of them.
While Adams is ranked as WR14 overall, it’s almost all because of his Week 3 performance against the Steelers with 42.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (13 receptions, 172 receiving yards, 2 TDs). In the other eight games, he has scored 84.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, or just 10.51 points per game. He hasn’t been worthy of a spot in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup for most of the season and now, he’s facing the best secondary in the league. No thanks!
Put Davante Adams on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week. I could say the same thing about Jakobi Meyers ($11,000,000) who is ranked as WR16, but Meyers has scored double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points in six out of his eight games played. Regardless, I wouldn’t want to rely on either one of them this week.
Cole Kmet (TE – CHI): After a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) in his first game with Tyson Bagent ($906,667) as the starting Bears QB, Cole Kmet ($1,894,445) has rallied with two consecutive solid games and sits as TE5 for the 2023 Dynasty Owner season. He scored 17.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 8 against the Chargers and 23.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 9 against the Saints. Neither of those teams are as good at stopping TEs as the Bears’ opponent on a short week in the Carolina Panthers.
In eight games, Carolina has allowed TEs to catch just 25 passes for 266 receiving yards and 2 TDs. They are playing the NFC North teams this season and already faced the other two NFC North TEs, T.J. Hockenson ($9,392,000) and Sam LaPorta ($2,366,498), ranked in the top 5 TEs in Dynasty Owner scoring. Hockenson had just 4.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 24 receiving yards) on a mere three targets, while LaPorta had the only TDs allowed by the Panthers along with 3 receptions for 47 receiving yards (19.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). He was only targeted four times though.
If the Panthers can keep Kmet’s targets down to three or four like they did to Hockenson and LaPorta, he’s likely to score far below double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 10. I think that will happen and so Dynasty Owners should leave Kmet on their 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 10. As he mentioned, he couldn’t come up with a great fifth player, so he scrambled to find three players to list as 5a, 5b and 5c to go along with his first four selections.
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 10 Roster % | Current Roster % | Change |
| Noah Brown | WR | HOU | $2,600,000 | 30.65% | 45.21% | 14.56% |
| Keaton Mitchell | RB | BAL | $904,333 | 78.16% | 92.72% | 14.56% |
| Taysom Hill | TE | NO | $10,000,000 | 49.81% | 62.07% | 12.26% |
| Leonard Fournette | RB | BUF | $7,000,000 | 69.73% | 70.88% | 1.15% |
| Royce Freeman | RB | LAR | $1,080,000 | 72.03% | 70.88% | -1.15% |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster | WR | NE | $8,500,000 | 85.06% | 85.44% | 0.38% |
| Jack Stoll | TE | PHI | $815,833 | 1.15% | 2.30% | 1.15% |
Unlike last week when Dynasty Owners (including myself) were scrambling for players and turning to the Free Agent Auction, there hasn’t been as much movement among Jay’s targets. Maybe people are shy after so many of them ran to grab Jaren Hall ($1,029,819) and drove his roster percentage up over 60 percentage points in just two days. Then they had to suffer through watching him play on Sunday and get knocked out with a concussion after scoring just 5.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (78 passing yards and 11 rushing yards).
The top three players on Jay’s list this week all had their roster percentage increase by at least ten percentage points. Keaton Mitchell is now over 90% rostered in Dynasty Owner leagues and won’t be anywhere near this list for a long time. Both Noah Brown and Taysom Hill increased their roster percentage by quite a bit, but are still eligible next week. Hill is nowhere near being rostered in nearly all Dynasty Owner leagues as Jay thinks he should be, but he did move to over 60% rostered, while Brown is creeping up on the 50% rostered mark.
Leonard Fournette is in his own category with that $7 million salary and still sitting on the Bills’ practice squad. As a Dynasty Owner with Fournette in one league, I’m happy to sit on him and wait for him to start playing and take the salary reduction once he’s elevated to the Active roster. However, I’m not bidding on him in other Dynasty Owner leagues in which he might be available, then paying his $7 million salary when I might need that salary cap room or roster spot for someone who can help my team out immediately.
Finally, it appears that Dynasty Owners aren’t buying into the three players who shared the #5 spot. Being on his bye in Week 10 has likely caused Royce Freeman’s roster percentage to dip very slightly. Having scored less than 1.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game he has played in (32.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 42 games played or 0.77 points per game) hasn’t led to a rush of people scrambling to bid on Eagles TE Jack Stoll. Finally, JuJu Smith-Schuster already had a super high roster percentage (85.06%) at the start of Week 10 and his less than inspired play this season with only 41.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points plus $8.5 million salary has given Dynasty Owners several reasons to not bother to bid on him.
Happy bidding and hope everyone didn’t have to scramble too much and got who they wanted in the Free Agent Auction this week.
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? It was over on Twitter/X pretty regularly over the first few weeks of the season and if you follow me there (@SteveVT33), you may have seen it. However, it’s been lacking submissions, so I haven’t posted one for the past couple of weeks. If you have a good match-up and want it to be the Week 10 Match-up of the Week, then send it over and I’ll post it for you.
The updated Chase for the Ring Leaderboard has been sporadically posted on Twitter/X as well. You don’t really need it posted there as anyone can access it 24/7 at https://app.dynastyowner.com/chase-for-the-ring. It’s a live leaderboard that can change at any time, so your team name could be in the top 100 now, or sometime during this week’s games.
Slightly longer versions of the Match-up of the Week and the Chase for the Ring Leaderboard have also appeared on a hit or miss basis on the Dynasty Owner thread on Reddit, as well as Facebook and Instagram. The Chase for the Ring leaderboard Top 10 has been appearing regularly in a weekly newsletter sent out by Dynasty Owner.
Conclusion
We should be back to a more normal amount of Free Agent Auction bidding for Week 11 when the Colts, Falcons, Patriots and Saints are on bye. Some good solid players on those teams, but not nearly as many players as Week 9 or as prominent as the ones on bye this week. After that, it’s Thanksgiving week with no teams on bye to close out November, followed by another six team bye week in Week 13 to start December.
In case you missed last week’s article or didn’t read the Conclusion, I asked Rhamondre Stevenson and Demario Douglas ($993,333) to step up with a big game and win the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week or Value Player of the Week award and get the Patriots their first award winner. Stevenson did have a fine week with 22.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (87 rushing yards, 4 receptions, 42 receiving yards, 1 TD), but needed another TD to be a better value than Tank Dell. There’s still plenty of weeks left in the Dynasty Owner season for someone from the Patriots to step up and win one of these awards.
Which week was more difficult for you to set your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and fill out a full Bench? Did one of them have you scrambling to bid on replacements in the Free Agent Auction more than the other one? Let me (and your fellow Dynasty Owners) know about it by posting it on Twitter/X and tagging me and Dynasty Owner, or posting about it on Facebook, Instagram or Reddit. It would be great if you could please comment in all of those places when this article is published and let everyone know if you like, or dislike, my weekly recommendations, or think you can do better. You can even agree and like the article on any of those social media platforms as well. We appreciate the feedback from our fellow Dynasty Owners.
The Week 10 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). Speaking of Jay, the Livestream is back this week on the Dynasty Owner YouTube channel at a slightly different time of 3:30 PM (Eastern) and Jay is going to be joining me for it. It’ll be good to reunite with him and chat Dynasty Owner fantasy football. Tim’s out this week, so if you want to see him, then go watch an old episode. 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