NFL Week 9 Preview

Injuries

By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)

Injuries are a big story every NFL and fantasy football season and this year is no different. You might ask “Why talk about them now, in Week 9, after the Dynasty Owner regular season is more than halfway over and the NFL regular season is close to the mid-season?” That’s a good question and so here goes with my “answer”.

The situation with the Bijan Robinson ($5,489,634) injury situation back in Week 7 when he only played 11 snaps and had one rushing attempt for three yards (0.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) in the Falcons’ game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers appeared to have led to some changes in how injuries were reported in Week 8. All of a sudden, the Chiefs let everyone know that Patrick Mahomes ($45,000,000) was sick on Sunday morning, before the Chiefs-Broncos Week 8 game, but still going to start. It was the direct opposite of what the Falcons had done the prior week and with the NFL publicly questioning the Falcons injury reporting, is probably the reason why the Chiefs let it be known that Mahomes was sick. It’s far less likely that the Chiefs make that announcement if the Robinson situation hadn’t occurred the previous week.

It reminds me that the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady was listed on the Patriots’ injury report as “probable” or “questionable” pretty much every week during his entire career in New England. Don’t believe me? Think I’m exaggerating a lot? Then please check out this article and graphic from 2017 that shows Brady had been listed on the Patriots injury report 186 times in his 17 year career (at that point). That’s an average of nearly 11 times per season or somewhere between 60% and 70% of the time, depending on whether or not you are counting just regular season games or both regular season and playoff games. Either way, it seems the Patriots were overcautious in adding Brady to their injury report on a weekly basis.

It’s difficult to get a count on injuries during the season in order to compare. However, with fewer pre-season games now than in the past and the top players playing even less in those pre-season games, the injuries that used to occur during pre-season games now happen in the first couple of weeks of the NFL season and are reaching a crescendo now. So far, 24 out of 32 NFL teams, or three-quarters (75%), have had only one starting QB all season with just the Bears, Browns, Colts, Giants, Jets, Panthers, Raiders, and Titans starting more than one.

In addition, there were a number of significant season-ending injuries in Week 8 to players like Kendrick Bourne ($5,000,000) and Kirk Cousins ($35,000,000), plus injuries to a few other QBs, such as Kenny Pickett ($3,516,976), Matthew Stafford ($40,000,000), Tyrod Taylor ($5,500,000) that forced backup QBs to play in Week 8. Not to mention that there were already backup QBs starting in Week 8 for Justin Fields ($4,717,989), Daniel Jones ($40,000,000), Kyler Murray ($46,100,000), Anthony Richardson ($8,498,508), Aaron Rodgers ($37,500,000), Ryan Tannehill ($29,500,000), and Deshaun Watson ($46,000,000). If you’re counting at home, we had 10 backup QBs play at some point in Week 8 and eight teams will start Week 9 games with a different QB than the one who started for them in Week 1. That’s a lot of injuries to players at the most important position on the field and likely a significant part of the reason why it seems like injuries are more prominent now than at the beginning of the season. Along with the current rash of reporting illnesses now.

Speaking of injuries, that’s why this Week 9 preview article is later than usual. I had a medical procedure earlier in the week and while I’m on the mend now, I’m  working slower than usual. Hence the delay in getting out the preview article and weekly 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 our new top scoring player in Dynasty Owner in Josh Allen ($43,005,667). 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 afternoon of November 3rd. 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 9, let’s look at Week 8 and announce the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. After a one-week interruption in our first time winners streak, it’s back as we have another first-time Player of the Week. This one is surprising, but after this week, he’s ranked in the top 10 at his position for the entire season. It shows how one great week can catapult a player up in the season-long rankings. The Dynasty Owner Player of the Week for Week 9 was Sam Howell.

Do you know what’s more surprising than Sam Howell ($1,005,400) winning this award in a week in which all 32 NFL teams were playing? It might be the fact that he’s the first Washington Redskins/Football Team/Commanders player to win the Player of the Week award in Dynasty Owner history and no Washington player has won Value Player of the Week. See the Conclusion to find out the other teams that haven’t had a Player of the Week winner and which team is the only one to have won either yet.

For Howell, this was the best game of his short NFL career by a pretty wide margin. In Week 8, he had 41.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (397 passing yards, 11 rushing yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT, 1 fumble) which was the best week of his career by over 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. With just an extra 3 passing yards, he would have gotten an extra 3.0 bonus points for 400+ passing yards and scored 45.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Still, I’m sure his Dynasty Owners are extremely happy with the fact that he won Player of the Week and is now the QB9 for the entire 2023 season. In case you were wondering since I had mentioned how much better he was this week than any other week in his career, his previous high was 31.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on that much reviled Thursday Night Football game against the Bears back in Week 5.

Finally, not only was Sam Howell the Player of the Week, but he also had the lowest Cost per Point for Week 8 and would have also won the Value Player of the Week award (if allowed), just like De’Von Achane ($1,359,362) did in Week 3 before he got hurt and went on Injured Reserve. Congratulations to Sam on your first Player of the Week honor and being the first Washington football player (regardless of team nickname) to win.

Week 8 Points: 41.9

2023 Salary: $1,005,400

Cost per Point: $23,995

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, Sam Howell was technically the winner, but since he received the Player of the Week award, this goes to the second best value of the week. The winner is a familiar face with his second Value Player of the Week win of the 2023 season. The Value Player of the Week is Rashid Shaheed.

Before Puka Nacua ($1,021,244) and Brock Purdy ($934,252) started taking over this space, we had Rashid Shaheed as the Value Player of the Week back in the first week of the season. In Week 1, Shaheed had 20.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, and he did even better in Week 8 with 25.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 153 receiving yards, 1 TD, 46 return yards). Shaheed currently leads the NFL in yards per reception at 20.8 and is the only NFL player averaging over 20 yards per reception this season. After this week’s performance, Shaheed is the WR21 in Dynasty Owner for the 2023 season and has more Dynasty Owner fantasy points than both of his better known (and much better paid) fellow Saints WRs Chris Olave ($4,817,969) and Michael Thomas ($10,000,000). Congratulations to Rashid on his second Value Player of the Week honor and for definitely being in the running for Value Player of the Year. It may be a longshot, but with injuries piling up in 2023, he’ll be in the conversation if he stays healthy and other low salary, high performance players miss a game or two (or more).

Week 8 Points: 25.5

2023 Salary: $750,000

Cost per Point: $29,412

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. Let’s find out what happened last week.

QB: Derek Carr ($37,500,000) –  25.4 (Just Ok recommendation)

RB: Devin Singletary ($2,750,000) – 6.3 (Bad recommendation)

WR: Rashee Rice ($1,623,802) – 9.6 (Bad recommendation)

TE: Trey McBride ($1,574,916) – 25.5 (Good recommendation)

Starting off with the Good recommendation because it was so Good. Trey McBride was the top scoring TE in Dynasty Owner (and most fantasy football leagues) in Week 8 when he had 25.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (10 receptions, 95 receiving yards, 1 TD). I said Arizona was making the TEs a prominent part of their offense and 14 targets for McBride certainly confirmed it.

In the Just Ok category was Derek Carr who finished with 25.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (310 passing yards, -1 rushing yard, 2 TDs, 1 lost fumble). That’s good enough to be a Good recommendation in most weeks, but in Week 8, Carr was QB12 and so it was Just Ok. While neither Devin Singletary nor Rashee Rice was terrible, both should have been on Dynasty Owner Benches instead of in Starting lineups after scoring 6.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (30 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 13 receiving yards) and 9.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 56 receiving yards) respectively. Therefore, both of those recommendations were Bad.

My Starting lineup recommendations have been a model of consistency as I’ve had seven consecutive weeks with one Good recommendation. That’s not good enough and I need to step it up for the rest of the Dynasty Owner regular season and playoffs if I want to reach 50% Good recommendations, or even have more Good than Bad recommendations for the 2023 season. Here are the players who I think are worth having in your Week 9 Starting lineup.

Mac Jones (QB – NE): The Commanders just traded away their top two pass rushers in Montez Sweat and Chase Young. That’s probably not going to help maintain their pass rush that had been doing quite well at sacking the quarterback, even as their pass defense that has been allowing 256.8 passing yards per game to rank 29th in the NFL.

Even saying that, it seems like a stretch to recommend Mac Jones ($3,896,588) as a Starter as he is QB24 for the season and hasn’t even had his bye week. He’s averaging just 14.59 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Jones had two awful, negative point games with -0.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 4 against Dallas and -3.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 5 against New Orleans. Not to mention, his poor Week 6 performance of just 6.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points against Las Vegas. However, in the past two games, he has scored a respectable 46.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (433 passing yards, 9 rushing yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT). He also had 33.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 against Philadelphia.

His Week 1 performance plus his 29.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance in Week 7 against Buffalo were his two best and both came at home. The Patriots play Washington at home this week and it’ll be Jones’ third Starting lineup worthy performance of the season. Get him in your Starting lineup in a week where five of the top 13 ranked QBs are either out injured or on bye.

Chuba Hubbard (RB – CAR): Even though Miles Sanders ($6,350,000) was back after missing Week 6 with an injury and the Panthers on bye in Week 7, Chuba Hubbard ($1,048,294) still had more snaps than him in Week 8 (45 snaps for Hubbard vs. 12 snaps for Sanders). I don’t anticipate that kind of split in favor of Hubbard this week and he didn’t really take advantage with just 7.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (28 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 26 receiving yards). However, the Houston rush defense who were the Panthers’ Week 8 opponent is better than the Colts’ rush defense and the Panthers get to play Indianapolis in Week 9.

The Colts have allowed RBs to score 12 TDs in 8 games, so 1.5 TDs per week. If Hubbard can get a TD, he’ll likely do as well as he did in Week 6 against Miami (with Sanders out) when he had his best game of the 2023 season with 16.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (88 rushing yards, 1 reception, 2 receiving yards, 1 TD). In each of the past three weeks, the Colts defense has allowed over 37 points and at least a pair of rushing TDs.

I like Hubbard to get at least one TD against the Colts defense that has been in decline for the past three weeks and will still be without run stuffing starting defensive tackle Grover Stewart who was suspended for six games for violating the NFL performance enhancing drugs policy. Get Hubbard into your Dynasty Owner starting lineup while the Colts are missing Stewart and likely to give up at least one rushing TD to the Panthers.

Tank Dell (WR – HOU): When Tank Dell ($1,244,382) plays, the Houston Texans actively try to get the ball into his hands. In the six games that he has played, he has gotten five or more touches in four of them. The only exceptions were Week 1 when he was targeted four times and Week 4 when he was targeted five times, but only had three touches. With fellow WR Robert Woods ($7,625,000) already ruled out for Week 9, Dell will be one of the Texans’ starting WRs and also their primary punt returner. While punt returning might not sound like much, Dell does have 75 punt return yards on the season and the Buccaneers have allowed 235 punt return yards in just 7 games (33.6 yards per game). An average game on punt returns might yield Dell an extra 0.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Remember where you read it if Tank breaks a punt return for big yardage this week.

On offense, Dell played 45 snaps without Woods last week, slightly more than both Nico Collins ($1,217,879) and Noah Brown ($2,600,000) who each played 42 snaps. The fact that Dell is playing as much as Collins and the Texans are actively trying to get him the ball are good signs. He has as many touches (29) in six games as any other Texans’ pass catcher besides Collins who has 33 touches in seven games.

Last week, three Buffalo WRs had Starting lineup worthy performances against Tampa Bay as Gabriel Davis ($998,595) had 23.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, Stefon Diggs ($24,000,000) had 16.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and Khalil Shakir ($1,001,787) had 15.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Not sure if three Texans’ WRs will do it this week, but I’m confident that Dell will and should be in your Starting lineup.

Cade Otton (TE – TB): While Cade Otton ($1,123,486) doesn’t have a game with more than 10.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points this season, he does have three games with more than 9.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and had 8.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions, 27 receiving yards and a 2-pt. conversion) last week. With four top 10 TEs out this week – Sam LaPorta ($2,366,498), Mark Andrews ($14,000,000) and Evan Engram ($13,750,000) are all on bye and Darren Waller ($17,000,000) is out with a hamstring injury – it stands to reason that fewer than 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points might be enough to make someone a top 12 TE this week.

Otton has gotten six targets in three out of his four best scoring fantasy games and the Houston Texans, the Buccaneers’ opponent this week, have allowed 62 targets to TEs in 7 games played (8.86 targets per game). Those targets have yielded an average of 7 receptions and 64.9 receiving yards, which equals 13.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. An average week by Otton from QB Baker Mayfield ($4,000,000) who has always targeted his TEs a lot would be enough to make Otton a Starting TE this week. Therefore, go get Otton in your Dynasty Owner 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 8 worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok).

QB: Russell Wilson ($48,517,647) – 22.7 (Just Ok recommendation)

RB: Brian Robinson ($1,261,227) – 9.9 (Just Ok recommendation)

WR: Amari Cooper ($20,000,000) – 14.9 (Bad recommendation)

TE: Jonnu Smith ($12,500,000) – 2.3 (Good recommendation)

These Bench recommendations were similar to the Starting lineup recommendations with only one Good recommendation. They were a slight bit better as two recommendations were Just Ok and only one was Bad. Not great though and still needs improvement in the second half of the season.

Jonnu Smith only had one reception for 13 receiving yards (2.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) for an easy Good recommendation. Both Rusell Wilson and Brian Robinson had decent games and were the lowest of low-end Starters or highest of high-end Bench players in Week 8. Wilson had 22.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (114 passing yards, 30 rushing yards, 3 TDs, 2 fumbles – 1 lost) which put him just behind Derek Carr as QB13. Even though he was technically QB13, I can’t call it a Good recommendation, so it’ll be Just Ok. Same with Brian Robinson who had 9.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (59 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 20 receiving yards) and was right on the cusp of being worth having as one of your Starting RBs. Again, that’s Just Ok. Even though the Amari Cooper recommendation was Bad, it wasn’t terrible as he had 14.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions for 89 receiving yards) and finished as a high-end FLEX option for the week. It was a Bad recommendation and the fourth Bad WR recommendation of the season for me, but the highest number of Dynasty Owner fantasy points for any of those Bad recommendations is 16.3 so all of them have been pretty close to being Just Ok.

Hopefully this week can have four Good Bench recommendations, like I did back in Week 1. These four players are the guys who I’m relying on to not play well enough to be worth having in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.

Tua Tagovailoa (QB – MIA): Technically, I could pick Joshua Dobbs ($2,000,000) here as after subtracting injuries and QBs on bye weeks, he goes from being QB16 to QB11 overall, but since he was just traded and is just possibly going to play a “supportive” role (whatever that is), I’ll be fair and not include him. The top four QBs are all facing tough teams, but it’s tough to pick Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts ($1,506,293), or Patrick Mahomes here. However, the overall QB3 is Tua Tagovailoa ($7,568,859) and while the Dolphins have some amazing skill position players, Tua has a few weaknesses that make him my choice this week.

First, it’s a road game for the Dolphins and a big road game as they have to travel to Germany and play at 9:30 AM (Eastern). Don’t forget to set your lineup early Sunday morning or Saturday night if you sleep in late or live on the West Coast. Tua has averaged 26.16 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game (209.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in eight games) this season, but at home, his average is 30.88 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game and on the road, it’s 21.45 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game. That road average includes his 41.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points versus the Chargers in Week 1 and obscures the fact that he has fewer than 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in his other three road games this season.

Tua is also fairly turnover prone with 7 INTs and 7 fumbles this season. He’s tied for eighth most INTs and the Chiefs defense is averaging 1.5 turnovers per game, which is in the top third in the NFL. Chances are good that Tua will lose a few fantasy points due to turnovers and he doesn’t gain any yards rushing (26 rushing yards all season), so if the Chiefs can hold him under 300 yards passing and to just 1 TD, he’ll likely score fewer than 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and be a high-end Bench QB this week. That’s my prediction so when you set your Dynasty Owner lineup early for this game, put Tua in your Bench QB spot.

Alexander Mattison (RB – MIN): The injury to starting Vikings QB Kirk Cousins is thrusting rookie fifth round draft pick Jaren Hall ($1,029,819) into the Vikings starting lineup against the Atlanta Falcons this week. With an untested rookie at QB, it stands to reason that the Vikings might try to run the ball more than usual. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they are facing a Falcons’ defense that is allowing only 83.5 rushing yards per game and 3.84 yards per carry to RBs and hasn’t given up a rushing TD to a RB this season. It would seem that a RB will need plenty of rushing attempts to get enough yards to offset not scoring a TD.

Alexander Mattison ($3,500,000) has been the Vikings starting RB this season and is the RB27 for the season. With injuries and players on bye leaving six RBs out this week, he’s a mid-range RB2 for Week 9 and likely a starter for many Dynasty Owners. However, Mattison has yet to run for over 100 yards in a single game despite games with 16, 17, 18 and 20 carries already and is averaging 3.7 yards per carry (390 rushing yards on 106 attempts). Last week against Green Bay was the low point as he had just 31 rushing yards on 16 attempts plus 1 reception for 2 yards (4.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). He had fewer Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 2 (3.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), but just 8 rushing attempts.

It’s not a true timeshare with Cam Akers ($1,543,259) as Mattison has played more snaps every week since Akers joined the Vikings, but Akers has outscored him in two straight games and got the Vikings lone rushing TD of the season last week. Mattison does have two TDs on the season, but both were receiving TDs.

While it would seem like a good week to trust the Vikings’ leading rusher with a new QB under center, the signs are heading in the opposite direction for Mattison. With the Falcons’ likely to dare Hall to beat them through the air, it seems like a good idea for Dynasty Owners to put Mattison on their Bench this week.

DJ Moore (WR – CHI): Since DJ Moore’s ($20,628,000) breakout Player of the Week game back in Week 5, he’s been pretty average and scored a total of 33.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (11.0 points per game) with zero TDs. The targets have been there as he’s been targeted 23 times, mostly with rookie Tyson Bagent ($906,667) at QB, but it’s all receptions and receiving yards (17 receptions for 160 receiving yards).

Things aren’t likely to improve this week for Moore against New Orleans as he’s likely to be shadowed by Marshon Lattimore who has dominated the perimeter and helped the Saints hold perimeter WRs like Moore to the second fewest fantasy points allowed this season. Now, the Saints haven’t exactly been facing Hall of Fame QBs every week, but Bagent is an undrafted rookie free agent from a Division II college and might be the worst QB they have faced.

Average performances with a rookie QB plus good playing a good defense with a shutdown cornerback equals a week with likely less than 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points for DJ Moore. Sorry Tim, but I’m recommending that you (and everybody else with Moore on their Dynasty Owner team) put him on their Bench this week.

Logan Thomas (TE – WAS): Despite only having three weeks with double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points, Logan Thomas ($8,021,667) is your TE10 in Dynasty Owner. With the previously mentioned four TEs above him either on bye or injured and out in Week 9, he’s a top end TE this week. That shows the sorry state of the TE position in fantasy football.

Thomas has those three double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy point scoring weeks and has needed a TD to reach that mark all three times. This week, the Commanders are facing the Patriots defense that has allowed only one TD by a TE all season and less than 5 receptions per game and only 44 receiving yards per game to TEs. They also held one of those TEs ahead of Thomas in scoring, Dallas Goedert ($14,250,000), to a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) in Week 1.

Yes, it is true that Thomas’ QB was the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week last week, but I’m Bill Belichick defenses are always difficult for rookie QBs to handle and while Howell isn’t technically a rookie, he’s never faced the Patriots before. Advantage Hoodie. Don’t dismiss this as “Steve being a Patriots homer”. Leave Thomas on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week when the Commanders face the Patriots.

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 9. This week was a little different than usual as one of Jay’s picks was just over the usual 80% rostered threshold and another had a salary of over the usual limit of $8 million. That’s ok though as injuries are making the pickings slimmer and slimmer as the 2023 season moves along.

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 8 Roster %	Current Roster %	Change
Jaren Hall	QB	MIN	$1,029,819	10.73%	71.26%	60.53%
Darrell Henderson	RB	LAR	$1,053,001	81.99%	90.42%	8.43%
Leonard Fournette	RB	BUF	$7,000,000	60.54%	66.67%	6.13%
Demario Douglas	WR	NE	$993,333	63.60%	84.29%	20.69%
Taysom Hill	TE	NO	$10,000,000	34.48%	45.21%	10.73%

A solid week of pickups in the Free Agent Auction as all five players have seen an increase of at least six percentage points and two players (Darrell Henderson and Demario Douglas) won’t be on Jay’s Week 10 list since they are rostered in over 80% of Dynasty Owner leagues now. I know Jay cheated a little bit with Henderson this week, but Douglas is higher than Henderson after last week due to the season-ending injury to Jay’s favorite player  to have on his targets list this year (Kendrick Bourne) and won’t be back again.

Even Taysom Hill and his $10 million salary were added in a pretty significant number of leagues (10.73%) over the past couple of days and Leonard Fournette saw his roster percentage go up to two-thirds (66.67%) even though he just signed with the Bills on Monday and still carries a hefty salary of $7 million.

A word of warning to everyone who picked up Jaren Hall this week. First, his hold on the starting job in Minnesota appears to be very tenuous based on his coach saying that recent trade pickup Joshua Dobbs ($2,000,000) will be in potentially in a “supportive” role in Week 9 and Dobbs’ history of playing for a team just days after getting traded. He did it last year for Tennessee and earlier this year for Arizona, so why not do it again in Minnesota? Also, Tyson Bagent had an increase in roster percentage in Week 7 just as high has Hall has, but Bagent hasn’t exactly lit up the scoreboard since becoming the Bears starting QB. Bagent has scored 27.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (394 passing yards, 23 rushing yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 1 fumble) in two games as the Bears’ starter. I agree with Jay’s rationale and finding a starting QB for around $1 million is Dynasty Owner gold. Dynasty Owners need to take a chance and see if those QBs might turn into the next Brock Purdy. However, I wouldn’t start writing your League Championship victory speech and spending the money you’ll win in a cash prize pool league just yet.

Happy bidding and hope everyone got who they wanted, including Hall or 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? It has been back over on Twitter/X sporadically over the past few weeks and if you follow me there (@SteveVT33), you may have seen it. If you have a good match-up, send it to me ASAP as there’s time and I can make it the Week 9 Match-up of the Week.

The updated Chase for the Ring Leaderboard has also been sporadically posted on Twitter/X during the first half of the regular season. However, anyone can access it 24/7 at https://app.dynastyowner.com/chase-for-the-ring. Check it out now and see if things changed after the Thursday Night Football game between the Titans and Steelers. The leaderboard is live and can change at any time, so your team name could be in the top 100 now, or during the games on Sunday or even Monday night.

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

After Sam Howell’s victory as Dynasty Owner Player of the Week, only five teams have now not had a Player of the Week award winner. They are (in alphabetical order): Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, and New England Patriots. Sadly, I must report that the only team left without a Dynasty Owner Player of the Week or Value Player of the Week award winner is the New England Patriots. Come on Rhamondre Stevenson ($1,057,264) or Demario Douglas! Let’s get it done this season for me and every other Patriots fan who is also a Dynasty Owner!

Both of them have a chance because of recent Patriots injuries and the Friday afternoon news that DeVante Parker ($7,625,000) has been ruled out of Week 9 with a concussion. Let’s hope that there aren’t many Week 9 injuries and that some of the players who have been on Injured Reserve, such as De’Von Achane, James Conner ($7,000,000), and Khalil Herbert ($902,677), for a couple of weeks return soon and can contribute to their NFL teams and for their Dynasty Owners. Injuries are part of football, but no fun and nothing that anybody wants for their players or anybody else’s players.

If you have injured players who are making it difficult for you to set your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and fill out a full Bench, then 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 9 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 will also be back next week with the weekly Livestream. If you missed seeing with me and Dynasty Owner CEO Tim Peffer this week, then come back and join us next week or watch an old episode 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

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