Survival of the Fittest
By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
We are at the One and Done/Eliminator phase of the fantasy football season now. One loss and your season is Done. Your team is Eliminated. It’s Survival of the Fittest right now. It doesn’t matter if you were the worst team who barely made the playoffs as the #6 seed with a 7-7 record (or worse) or were the best team in your league based on points scored, but somehow lost a couple of close match-ups so your record didn’t reflect those points scored and your team ended up as the #3 seed. If you lose this week, then your team’s Dynasty Owner season is over and unfortunately, you have nothing to show for it.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but for two additional Dynasty Owner teams per league, this is it. It’s the worst feeling to lose this week, especially in cash prize pool leagues as this week’s two losing teams don’t get paid. Your team needs to make it to the league semi-finals next week to recoup your prize pool entry fee.
The reason for your team’s loss this week could be a key injury to one of your main players, like what happened last week to Dynasty Owners who had Justin Herbert ($6,644,689) as their Starting QB and saw him get hurt and leave the game after scoring a mere 1.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. No mulligans in golf. No second chances. No “we’ll get them next week”. If your Dynasty Owner team loses this week, they are eliminated.
If you got a bye and don’t have to play a match-up this week, then Congratulations! You have advanced one week, but still need to win next week and the week after that too if your goal is to win your League Championship. Same principle, it’s all about survival and you need to win to survive. For a select few, the goal is even greater. It’s to become the 2023 Chase for the Ring Champion and to have survived and really be the Fittest Dynasty Owner of them all this year. Since it’s the final Dynasty Owner season, you can’t even fall just a little short and give it another shot next year.
In order to help any Dynasty Owners who might need or want my help in their first playoff match-up, I’ll be giving you four recommendations with a player at each position (QB, RB, WR, TE) who you should have as a Starter in your Dynasty Owner lineup, even though they aren’t obvious choices. Even though fewer Dynasty Owner teams are competing this week, I’ll still use the same criteria as usual and still won’t recommend that you start Josh Allen ($43,005,667) who finished as the top scoring player in the Dynasty Owner regular season. 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 or players drafted to be on your Bench or Practice Squad.
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 December 14th. 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 the first week of the Dynasty Owner playoffs, let’s look at the final week of the regular season (aka Week 14) and announce the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. We have another first time winner for the season, but he’s definitely not a first time winner at all. In fact, he was the top scorer player in Dynasty Owner during the inaugural 2019 season with 514.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. He hasn’t reached that lofty level since, but still had a Player of the Week victory in each of the past two seasons for a total of five overall. If you were around for the first season of Dynasty Owner, you probably know that the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week is Lamar Jackson.
It was a vintage Lamar Jackson ($52,000,000) performance as he had 316 passing yards, 70 rushing yards, 3 TDs, a 2-pt. conversion and an interception for a total of 43.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. His touchdown pass to Zay Flowers ($3,509,109) with 1:16 left in the fourth quarter put the Ravens ahead of the Rams by a score of 29-28 and then he added two more points with a 2-pt. conversion pass to Flowers to put the Ravens up by a field goal. The Rams tied it to send the game into overtime when the Ravens won on a Tylan Wallace ($1,041,341) punt return TD. Because of Lamar’s salary, the Cost per Point for a Player of the Week was above $1 million for the first time this season.
Week 14 Points: 43.8
2023 Salary: $52,000,000
Cost per Point: $1,187,215
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 been a QB dominated season for Value Player of the Week and this week is more of the same. For the second time this season, we have a QB winning back-to-back awards. The Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week for the second time in a row is Jake Browning.
Last week, I said that the first Value Player of the Week honor for Jake Browning ($750,000) may not be his last and that he had four more opportunities. With his second win in a row, he has three additional opportunities and he’ll need to win them all to tie Brock Purdy ($934,252) as the most decorated Value Player of the Week in Dynasty Owner history. If Browning wins it again just once more, he’ll tie Puka Nacua ($1,021,244) with three wins this season and if he wins it twice, he’ll tie Purdy with four.
In Week 14, Browning was not quite as prolific as he was the previous week, but he still scored 29.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (275 passing yards, 7 rushing yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT), which is quite good for a player making the NFL minimum salary. While Browning was Value Player of the Week, we almost had our first New England Patriots player win a Dynasty Owner award as Bailey Zappe had 28.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (240 passing yards, 13 rushing yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT) for only $870,000. Zappe might be the first Patriots player to win, while Browning’s win last week made him the first Bengals player to win Value Player of the Week. Congratulations to Jake on his back-to-back great performances and quest to be the first player to win three Player of the Week honors in a row.
Week 14 Points: 29.4
2023 Salary: $750,000
Cost per Point: $25,510
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Before we get into the weekly recommendations, let’s look at last week’s recommendations and see how they did (Good, Bad or Just Ok). I closed out the Dynasty Owner regular season with one of my best weeks of Starting lineup recommendations. Here’s who I recommended and how they did.
QB: Baker Mayfield ($4,000,000) – 28.5 (Good recommendation)
RB: Javonte Williams ($2,216,438) – 18.1 (Good recommendation)
WR: Elijah Moore ($2,235,107) – 7.2 (Bad recommendation)
TE: Gerald Everett ($6,000,000) – 8.9 (Just Ok recommendation)
The best of the two Good recommendations was Baker Mayfield as the Buccaneers QB was QB7 for the week with 28.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (144 passing yards, 3 rushing yards, 3 TDs). It was the three touchdowns, including a clutch 11-yard TD pass to Cade Otton ($1,123,486) with 31 seconds left in the game that won it for the Buccaneers and made Mayfield a Good recommendation. Recommending Javonte Williams at RB was also Good as he got his first rushing TD of the 2023 season to go with 66 rushing yards, 3 receptions and 25 receiving yards (18.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points).
In many weeks, the 8.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions for 39 receiving yards) scored by Gerald Everett would be enough to be inside the top 12 TEs, but not this week. He was only 1.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points away from the top 12, so it wasn’t really Bad, but Just Ok. Finally, Elijah Moore had just 7.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions for 42 receiving yards) on six targets. The six targets were the fewest for Moore since back in Week 9 and as a result, the recommendation to put him in your Starting lineup was Bad.
Overall, it was just the fourth week that I had two Good recommendations. Sadly, there have been no three or four Good recommendation weeks. In honor of the start of the playoffs, I’m going bring my best recommendations for everyone and hopefully at least three of them are Good.
Geno Smith/Drew Lock (QB – SEA): Whichever Seattle QB is the starter this week is my choice here because the Seahawks are playing the Philadelphia Eagles. Despite their 10-3 record, the Eagles are reeling with a two-game losing streak that could have easily been three games. They have given up 109 points in their past three games and two of the three QBs who they have faced were the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. Josh Allen won in Week 12 with 50.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, while Brock Purdy had 41.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 13. They faced Dak Prescott ($40,000,000) last week and he “only” scored 23.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. That’s an average of 38.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per week. The Eagles defense is just allowing too many passing TDs as they have given up 29 TDs this season and allowed two or more passing TDs in each of the past six games.
I’d be most comfortable with Geno Smith ($25,000,000) at QB for Seattle, but he missed last week’s game against the 49ers after pulling his groin in practice. Before that, he had his best game of the season in Week 13 with 39.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Drew Lock ($4,000,000) held his own against the 49ers in his first start since the final week of the 2021 season with 19.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (269 passing yards, 5 rushing yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs).
It’s no guarantee that whoever starts at QB for Seattle will throw for two TDs, but with both QBs playing well in their last start and the Eagles defense playing so badly for so long, it seems likely to happen. If it does, that Seattle QB should be in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup. And if you have Smith (95.79% rostered), but not Lock (18.01%) and are playing this week, it’s time to clear some salary cap room and a roster spot to add Lock in case he’s the one taking the snaps in Week 15 for the Seahawks.
Chuba Hubbard (RB – CAR): Since Frank Reich was fired as head coach of the Carolina Panthers after Week 12, the Panthers have relied on their running game in general and Chuba Hubbard ($1,048,294) in particular. In each of the past two games, Hubbard has gotten 25 touches. He has turned those 25 touches into 24.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (104 rushing yards, 2 TDs) in Week 13 against Tampa Bay and 11.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (87 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 9 receiving yards) in Week 14 against New Orleans. While Carolina has scored just 24 points in those two games, Dynasty Owners don’t need Hubbard to get a TD to have a good enough game to be worth putting in their Starting lineup if he gets that many touches for a third week in a row.
That’s good because the Panthers’ opponent this week, the Atlanta Falcons, have yet to give up a rushing TD to a RB. They have given up 4 receiving TDs to RBs though and an average of 22.2 RB rushing attempts per game for 84.1 rushing yards. Hubbard also had 8.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (60 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 9 receiving yards) in Week 1 versus Atlanta when he was receiving about half as many snaps per game as he is now.
The new Panthers’ offensive philosophy has worked well for Hubbard and his Dynasty Owners, but he’s still RB28 for the 2023 season so he’s not yet entrenched in Dynasty Owner Starting lineups. Based on recent usage, he really should be in there this week.
Demarcus Robinson (WR – LAR): This one is a stretch. Even I’ll admit to that, but please read and find out why Demarcus Robinson ($1,165,000) is here and why Dynasty Owners with a Week 15 playoff matchup should consider going to get him off the Free Agent Auction (15.33%) if he’s there.
In each of the past two weeks, Robinson has scored a TD and had double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Last week, he had 13.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 46 receiving yards, 1 TD) and in Week 13, he had 15.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions, 55 receiving yards, 1 TD). Robinson has taken a majority of the snaps in each of the past three weeks and appeared to have moved ahead of Tutu Atwell ($1,477,175) in the Rams’ WR pecking order even before Atwell suffered a concussion last week.
The Rams host the Washington Commanders this week and no team has given up more receiving yards (2,580) to WRs than the Commanders and only the Eagles have given up more TDs (23) than the 20 given up by the Commanders. It’s a WR bonanza this week and if Matthew Stafford ($40,000,000) gets tired of throwing to Cooper Kupp ($26,700,000) or Puka Nacua, he can look Robinson’s way. He did it 10 times last week while Kupp was also being targeted 10 times and Nacua was targeted eight times. It’s tough to recommend starting a third Rams WR, but fortune favors the bold and I’m doing it. Go bid on Demarcus Robinson and put him in your Week 15 Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
Chigoziem Okonkwo (TE – TEN): Remember the Chigoziem Okonkwo ($1,041,085) hype during this past off-season and pre-season? It was so great that he was the 12th TE off the board on average in Dynasty Owner startup drafts with an ADP of 111.6. Back then, Dynasty Owners who drafted him or had him on their team from last year thought they were getting a solid TE1 because of the lack of pass catching options for the Titans outside of DeAndre Hopkins ($13,000,000) and Treylon Burks ($3,592,398). Turns out, it was just a lot of hype as Okonkwo has scored zero TDs this season to go along with only 40 receptions, 359 receiving yards and 6 rushing yards (76.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). That’s only 5.88 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game and he has zero games with double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points.
However, he has started to turn things around a little bit over the past three weeks and in the seven games that Will Levis ($2,385,542) has started at QB for Tennessee. In the past three weeks, Okonkwo has scored 27.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (9.17 points per game) on 17 targets with at least five targets per game. If you expand to all of the games with Levis as QB, Okonkwo has scored 47.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6.76 points per games) on 35 targets (5 targets per game). Sure, he’s still behind Nick Westbrooke-Ikhine ($1,260,000) in Dynasty Owner fantasy points for the season, but it’s a start.
The best news for those Dynasty Owners with Okonkwo as one of their TEs is that he gets to play against the Houston Texans twice during the Dynasty Owner playoffs (Week 15 and Week 17). The Texans’ defense has allowed TEs to be targeted 119 times for 88 receptions and 839 receiving yards (6.8 receptions and 64.5 receiving yards per game). Those averages are good enough for double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points and I believe that Okonkwo will break that barrier for the first time this season in Week 15. When he does, you’ll want to have him in your Starting lineup.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
Now let’s look at how each of my Bench recommendations from Week 14 fared (Good, Bad or Just Ok). It was a fairly typical week with more Good than Bad recommendations. Let’s see which individual recommendations were Good, Bad and Just Ok.
QB: C.J. Stroud ($9,069,811) – 3.5 (Good recommendation)
RB: Jaylen Warren ($857,333) – 8.0 (Good recommendation)
WR: Adam Thielen ($8,333,333) – 11.4 (Just Ok recommendation)
TE: Evan Engram ($13,750,000) – 32.5 (Bad recommendation)
We’ll go with the worst one first. This was the third time that I had recommended Evan Engram as a Bench TE and the first two turned into a Good and Just Ok recommendation. However, I was wrong about just about everything for Engram this week as Trevor Lawrence ($9,198,372) played and the Browns did not shut down Engram like they had every TE not named Mark Andrews ($14,000,000) this season. In fact, they did the opposite and it was the best game of the season for Engram with 32.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (11 receptions, 95 receiving yards, 2 TDs) and even better than Andrews did in Week 4. The recommendation to Bench Engram was Bad.
On the other hand, I had two Good recommendations as C.J. Stroud struggled mightily in the bad weather in New York and was knocked out of the game with a concussion in the fourth quarter after accumulating only 3.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (91 passing yards and a fumble). The New England Patriots defense did indeed hold both Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris ($3,261,862) who was a sort of bonus Bench recommendation down on Thursday night. Warren had only 8.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (11 rushing yards, 4 receptions, 29 receiving yards) and Harris was right behind him with 7.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (29 rushing yards, 3 receptions, 19 receiving yards). Both were close, but not quite worthy of being in the FLEX position, so the recommendations were Good. Finally, Adam Thielen had his best game since Week 11, but still had just 11.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. (5 receptions, 74 receiving yards, 1 fumble). It was just enough to be a low-end FLEX starter so that recommendation was Just Ok.
It wasn’t the perfect week that I was looking for to finish the Dynasty Owner regular season with half Good Bench recommendations, but I still did finish close with 26 Good (46%) vs. 18 Bad (32%) and 12 Just Ok (21%) recommendations. If I have a majority of Good recommendations for the Bench in the playoffs, I can still finish above .500. Here’s the players who I’m recommending for your Dynasty Owner Bench this week to get me there.
Tua Tagovailoa (QB – MIA): Picking the QB facing the Jets would seem to be a good idea plenty of weeks, but the first time I did it was last week with C.J. Stroud. Since it worked so well last week, I’m doubling up and picking Tua Tagovailoa ($7,568,859) this week. Back in Week 12, Tua and the Dolphins faced off against the Jets and he was held to a season-low 9.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (243 passing yards, 1 rushing yard, 1 TD, 2 INTs, 1 lost fumble). He had Tyreek Hill ($30,000,000) playing that week, but might be without his leading receiver for this game as Hill injured his ankle in last week’s game, played intermittently after doing so and hasn’t practiced yet this week.
I made the decision to pick Tua and then looked at his QB ranking. I was shocked to see that he has fallen down to QB10 for the season after two games with over 40.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in the first three weeks of the season. It’s truly been a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde season for the Dolphins QB. He has been better at home and averaging 26.13 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game, while scoring 19.47 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game on the road. However, against the Titans last week at home, Tua only managed 9.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (240 passing yards, 15 rushing yards, 2 fumbles – 1 lost).
I’ve had good “luck” with Tua as a Bench recommendation as it turned out Good the two previous times that I recommended Dynasty Owner Bench him. It’s Survival of the Fittest this week and Dynasty Owners can’t afford to lose so be careful putting Tua out there against one of the top two passing defenses in the NFL. While the pattern for Tua this season has generally been good game then bad game, then repeat, I think he’ll put up another bad game and shouldn’t be in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
James Cook (RB – BUF): All good streaks must come to an end. After all, Amon-Ra St. Brown ($1,066,313) had a streak of 20 consecutive games with double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points end last week against the Bears when he scored just 5.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions for 21 receiving yards) despite being targeted nine times. James Cook ($1,458,014) has been on a streak of four consecutive games with 100 yards or more of total offense and double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points, but I think that streak ends this week at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys. In the three games with Joe Brady as his offensive coordinator, Cook has averaged 20.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. However, none of the defenses that he has faced (Jets, Eagles and Chiefs) are as good as stopping RBs as the Cowboys.
While Cook has been performing better with his new offensive coordinator, his snap percentage has actually gone down and in none of those games has he been on the field for a majority of the Bills’ snaps on offense. In the first ten weeks, he was on the field a majority of the snaps seven times. Veteran RBs Latavius Murray ($1,317,500) and Ty Johnson ($1,080,000) have been cutting into Cook’s playing time and while it hasn’t affected Cook’s performance yet, it should against a very good Cowboys’ defense that has allowed only 7 TDs to RBs all season and averages of 75.5 rushing yards, 3.5 receptions and 24.9 receiving yards per game. That equates to 14.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (without a TD) and 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (with a TD) combined for the three Bills’ RBs.
Even with Cook getting less than half of the snaps, he has scored about 60% of the Dynasty Owner fantasy points for Bills’ RBs over the past three games. However, that would mean between 8.0 and 12.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, which is at best a low-end RB2 for a make-or-break game for Dynasty Owners. Hopefully Dynasty Owners with Cook have a better RB or one with a more favorable match-up to use this week so they can leave him on their Bench.
Drake London (WR – ATL): One great week does not make me believe in Drake London ($5,383,617) any more than I have for most of the 2023 Dynasty Owner season. I thought that he was overdrafted and back in August I said Dynasty Owners were too hot to trot for him with his mid-to-late third round Dynasty Owner startup ADP at 29.2 at that point. He finished with an ADP of 29.9 but is just WR35 on the season. That’s even after his career best 29.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (10 receptions, 172 receiving yards, 1 2-pt. conversion). It’s true that WR35 makes him barely a FLEX starter, but with his performance last week fresh in Dynasty Owners’ minds and almost all of them probably having overdrafted him at some point with his 2022 startup draft ADP being 49.8 (early fifth round), it makes it likely that they might put London in their Starting lineup as their WR2 or FLEX and hope for a repeat performance. Also, several WRs ahead of him are out for this week which moves him up the rankings.
Those Dynasty Owners hopefully remember that back in Week 1, London had one target and a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) against the same Carolina Panthers who they will face off against this week. Am I saying that London will have another Blutarsky? No, I’m not. But I do think that he’s more likely to be closer to that than his Week 14 performance. Carolina is actually a good team against WRs. Mostly because WRs have been targeted only 213 times all season (16.4 targets per game), which is second lowest in the NFL. We all know that Falcons head coach Arthur Smith would rather run the ball than pass it and I don’t need to cite the stats for that again. With a chance to go 7-7, get another conference and division win (always important for playoff tiebreakers) and maybe get into first place in the NFC South, do you think Smith is going to trust Bijan Robinson ($5,489,634) and Tyler Allgeier ($998,474) more or Desmond Ridder ($1,340,740)?
If you think it’s Ridder then go ahead and put London in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup. If you agree with me that it’ll be Robinson, Allgeier and the Falcons’ running game, then do what I’d do if I had Drake London on a Dynasty Owner team and leave him on the Bench.
George Kittle (TE – SF): Fortunately for me, the non-Dynasty Owner league in which I have George Kittle ($15,000,000) on my roster is also one in which I earned a first round bye, so I don’t have to follow my advice here because it would be really difficult to Bench him. It was a tough choice and the most obvious players at the bottom of the top 12 are questionable to play and it didn’t feel right to take one of them.
Last year, this would have been a laughable choice as Arizona was one of the worst defense against TEs and Kittle torched them for two TDs in both games. However, Arizona’s defense against TEs has improved significantly under new head coach Jonathan Gannon and they held Kittle to 1.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception for 9 receiving yards) in a Week 4 matchup in which Kittle had only one target while playing 53 out of 55 snaps. Christian McCaffrey ($16,015,875) was the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week that week with 50.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (106 rushing yards, 7 receptions, 71 receiving yards, 4 TDs). Something tells me that 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan might use McCaffrey a lot this week again.
That’s good news for Dynasty Owners with McCaffrey, but not so great news for those with Kittle since it’s a must-win week. Hopefully those Dynasty Owners have another TE who they can put in Kittle’s place and leave him on their Bench.
Undefeated Dynasty Owner Teams
It’s time for our weekly check in on the undefeated Dynasty Owner teams for the 2023 season. I’m only looking at teams currently inside the top 100 of the Chase for the Ring as those are the only records that I can see besides from teams in my own leagues. If you have an undefeated team outside of the Chase for the Ring leaderboard, please share it with me and your fellow Dynasty Owners on Twitter/X and I’ll be sure to add it.
We are down to three undefeated Dynasty Owner teams who finished the 2023 regular season with a perfect 14-0 record. It’s quite an accomplishment to finish an entire fantasy football season undefeated and all three of them should be proud of doing it. We had six undefeated teams in the 2022 regular season and two back in 2021, so it’s not a very common occurrence.
You may have noticed (or not) that the order of the Undefeated Dynasty Owner Teams and Chase for the Ring Leaderboard flipped this week. The reason why is because all three of the undefeated teams finished in the top 4 on the Regular Season Leaderboard of the 2023 Chase for the Ring.
| Team Name | League | Dynasty Owner Fantasy Points | Chase Position |
| The Road Warriors | 27449 | 2453.5 | 1st |
| Komodo Dragons | 174404 | 2322.4 | 2nd |
| WANNABEES | 36564 | 2292.2 | 4th |
The other two undefeated teams from last week, Footy Football in League #68694 and Box Score Facts Checker in League #28287, both lost and finished the regular season with a 13-1 record. A great accomplishment to go that long without a loss. Both of them still earned a first round bye for Week 15 and automatic advancement to the final four of their league’s playoffs.
Good luck to all three undefeated teams in scoring a lot of points in Week 15 and maintaining their spot on the 2023 Chase for the Ring Championship Contenders leaderboard!
Chase for the Ring Leaderboard
As just mentioned, the 2023 Dynasty Owner regular season is finished, and the Regular Season Leaderboard will stay static. As predicted last week, it ends with The Road Warriors at the top. They expanded their lead slightly over the second place Komodo Dragons and start the playoffs with a 131.1 point advantage. The question remains whether or not they will win their League and capture the Ring, but The Road Warriors are the 2023 Regular Season Champion!
The Road Warriors also expanded their lead slightly over the third place team (Footy Football from League #76061). The undefeated WANNABEES from League #36564 are now in fourth place, up from fifth place last week, and they did close the points gap between themselves and The Road Warriors by 21.3 points. Unless one of those teams or someone from further back can move ahead of The Road Warriors in points, all of them are trying to survive without losing and hoping The Road Warriors don’t.
If you want to check out the Chase for the Ring Leaderboard, it can be accessed at any time by going to https://app.dynastyowner.com/chase-for-the-ring. Only the Championship Contenders will change once the Week 15 NFL games start. The Championship Contenders tab will continue to update and only have the teams remaining in the playoffs until the end of the final Dynasty Owner playoffs (NFL Week 17).
Conclusion
Hopefully your Dynasty Owner team has what it takes to survive this week and advance in the playoffs. If not, thanks for being a part of Dynasty Owner and good luck in the rest of your leagues this year, next year and beyond. Your team may not have survived to the end of this season, but I appreciate that you survived reading this article to the end, and also that you played and supported Dynasty Owner.
You may have noticed that there was no weekly Free Agent Auction targets article from Jay Pounds on Tuesday and thus, no more updates on the percentage increase for the players included in that article. There were a couple of suggestions in the Starting lineup recommendations as both Drew Lock and Demarcus Robinson could have been in Jay’s article. Hopefully those recommendations turn out well if anyone takes them or has already picked up those players. If you are still alive in the Dynasty Owner playoffs and made any bids on Lock, Robinson or another player, I hope that you won the bid and got who you wanted.
If you did make and win a Free Agent Auction bid who’s going in your lineup this week, go ahead and post about it on Twitter/X and tag me and Dynasty Owner. You can even post your comment when this article is published there or post on Facebook or Instagram. As always, we appreciate the feedback from our fellow Dynasty Owners.
No Dynasty Owner Livestream this week, but you can still view the video that Tim and I recorded last week on the Dynasty Owner YouTube channel. Hopefully we have more videos or even a Livestream before the playoffs finish.
Thanks for reading this week 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