Dynasty Owners, it’s do or die week in the fantasy football community! What I mean by this is there are plenty of fantasy football teams out there staring at an 0-4 or 1-3 record and those managers must decide if they are going to start looking towards 2024 or if they are going to swing a couple of trades and try to get back into the playoff hunt. I know for myself I would be looking to the future at this point unless I had a stud or two returning from injury, such as Cooper Kupp ($26,700,000) or Jonathan Taylor ($1,957,288), who I feel will get me over the hump. At that point, I would start looking to make a trade and better my roster to ensure I don’t suffer many more losses along the way.
Before we get into the free agents, let’s talk about my highlights from Week 4. I must start with my guy from Ohio State C.J. Stroud ($9,069,811) who has led the Texans to a surprise 2-2 record including a win over my Steelers this past Sunday. While Bears quarterback Justin Fields ($4,717,989) has struggled and let me down this season, I believe Stroud is going to be the first true great quarterback in the NFL to come out of Ohio State. Alright, that’s enough Ohio State love for the week. In other news, this week the Bills regained control of the AFC East by dismantling the high-powered Dolphins, while the Jets and Patriots both lost, though the Jets should have beat the Chiefs and Zach Wilson ($8,787,670) played one of, if not his best game as a pro. I am still not worried about the Jets winning the division though. Lastly what has happened to the Bengals and Vikings? Both teams were expected to compete for division titles or potentially a Super Bowl and neither has looked good. Both teams are sitting at 1-3 and the Vikings barely squeaked by the winless Panthers in Week 4. The Bengals can point to Joe Burrow’s ($9,047,534) injury as the main blame, but what is the Vikings’ excuse? No running game? Bad defense? Either way both teams have struggled mightily and desperately need a win in Week 5. Do you think either of these teams can bounce back and make the playoffs? Let me know on X (formerly known as Twitter) if you do!
If you are new to this series of articles, there is a small list of requirements, with the main one being that the player must be 80% rostered or below in Dynasty Owner. The only other requirement I have is that I would like the player to have a salary of $8,000,000 or less, but I will put a higher salary player on the list if I feel they are worth it. Free Agent Auction bids will process on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern) for this upcoming week, so there’s still time to get your bids in for Week 4. The Bid listed below is my recommended amount to secure the player for your Dynasty Owner team in the Wednesday Free Agent Auction run in a typical Dynasty Owner league.
Like I always say, quarterbacks are gold here on Dynasty Owner. It’s why every time we have a potential starting quarterback available, they are the number 1 player picked up for the week. In Week 4, it happened to be my beloved Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett ($3,516,976) who went down. I know the name Mitch Trubisky won’t get many excited, but I believe he can put up better numbers than Pickett has thus far. One thing I love about Trubisky is the fact he is not scared to take chances, whereas Pickett has seemed to play conservative to start his career which may all be on Steelers’ offensive coordinator Matt Canada. Either way, the Steelers offense has too many weapons to not take a chance on whoever is under center. If Trubisky can come in and limit turnovers and use his mobility, he should be a solid Bench option here on the Dynasty Owner platform.
Jaleel McLaughlin is a player who all of you had on your watch list, right? I am kidding of course, as I doubt many of you have ever even heard of him, but come Week 5, the entire fantasy community will know his name, good or bad. In Week 4, McLaughlin’s teammate Javonte Williams ($2,216,438) suffered an injury and while he isn’t expected to miss much time, I am expecting him to sit at least a week. If this is the case, McLaughlin will get his chance to shine in a featured role. In Week 4 when filling in for Williams, McLaughlin played extremely well finishing with a stat line of 7 carries for 72 yards while adding 3 catches, 32 yards and a touchdown through the air (19.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). If Williams continues to struggle when he returns from injury, I expect McLaughlin to see more work throughout the season. The Broncos’ season already appears to be over and I don’t see much of a reason for them to run Williams into the ground just a year after tearing his ACL when they have a quality back behind him. Fun fact about McLaughlin. He is the NCAA’s all-time rushing leader. The talent is there.
Bid – $3,000,000
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (WR – TEN) 1 year/$1,260,000 – 63.6% Rostered
Outside of a disastrous Week 3 for every Titans player, Westbrook-Ikhine has quietly been a solid option at WR, scoring over 9.8 points each week (not including Week 3). I know many of you will pause when picking up a player like Westbrook-Ikhine as he has struggled to produce consistent numbers, but it seems as if he surpassed Treylon Burks ($3,592,398) to become the number 2 receiver for the Titans. I know Burks was injured for the Week 4 contest, but injuries have been a common theme for Burks to start his career. Even when both Burks and Westbrook-Ikhine have been on the field, it has been Westbrook-Ikhine who has shown himself to be the better option. If Westbrook-Ikhine can continue to build on the start he has had, he could weasel his way into the top 36 receivers before the year is done. My main worry here is the quarterback play in Tennessee.
At this time, I can’t find an update on Mike Evans’ ($16,500,000) injury which tells me it probably isn’t the best news, and he will miss some time. If Evans is set to miss time. Thompkins appears ready to step up and fill the void. While filling in for Evans in the second half this past Sunday, Thompkins had a solid day catching all 4 targets that came his way for 45 yards and a touchdown (15.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) against an excellent defense in New Orleans. The biggest negative working against Thompkins right now is the fact he has a bye in Week 5 which will give Evans an extra week to get healthy. The positive working in Thompkins’ favor is the fact that Evans is on the wrong side of 30 and the Buccaneers could and probably should keep him out a couple of weeks with them squarely in the playoff hunt. Regardless of what happens with Mike Evans, Thompkins has shown himself to be a player Dynasty Owners need to stash at the absolute worst.
Bid – $2,000,000
Ronnie Rivers (RB – LAR) 1 year/$750,000 – 14.56% Rostered
I am not sure how I feel on this one but as I have been saying all year, the running back position is an absolute wasteland right now and Dynasty Owners should be stocking up talent in any way imaginable. Rivers will likely be a bench option at best while teammate Kyren Williams ($992,601) is healthy but if he continues to produce the way he did against the Colts, Sean McVay will find ways to get him involved. On Sunday against the Colts, Rivers failed to find the end zone but finished with a promising 9 carries for 47 yards while adding 2 catches for 10 yards through the air (7.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). Rivers could be a potential league winner should he find himself in a starting role between now and Week 10-12. I highly recommend picking him up now because waiting until he gets a bigger role will cost you quite a bit more Dynasty Dollars than if you grab him this week.
Bid – $2,000,000
Thank you all for reading! Be sure to check out all of the upcoming articles from me and Steve plus the Dynasty Owner Livestream, now every Thursday afternoon at 4:00 PM (Eastern). Stay safe out there, and good luck on your 2023 Chase for the Ring!
Right now, we are almost a quarter of the way through the 2023 Dynasty Owner regular season, as the start of Week 4 is nearly upon us. In Dynasty Owner, we have a 14-week regular season (and three weeks of playoffs), so there’s no quarter-mile pole. I know that Patriots coach Bill Belichick typically breaks the season up into quarters, and it’s a good way to do things, but with 14 regular season games, it can’t be done for Dynasty Owners.
With six teams out of 12 making the Dynasty Owner playoffs, it’s not time to push the panic button just yet, even if your Dynasty Owner team is 0-3. After all, there were plenty of 7-7 Dynasty Owner playoff teams last year (and probably in every other year of Dynasty Owner). Any 0-3 teams “just” needs to finish 7-4 to make it with a .500 record. It’s not unreasonable to think your team can do it, especially if that team is patiently waiting on the return of Cooper Kupp ($26,700,000) or Jonathan Taylor ($1,957,288), or both of them, from the Injured Reserve list.
In the NFL, it’s pretty close to time to push the panic button on the 2023 season, but not just yet. According to this article, since 1979, six teams have made the playoffs after starting the season 0-3 and overall, only 2.4% of teams that have started 0-3 in the Super Bowl era have made the playoffs, with the 2018 Houston Texans being the last ones to do so. With the four remaining 0-3 NFL teams facing off against one another in Week 4 (Carolina vs. Minnesota and Chicago vs. Denver). How amazing is that? Unless there is a tie, we’ll definitely have two 0-4 NFL teams who will definitely be pushing that panic button. Only the 1992 San Diego Chargers have gone 0-4 and made the playoffs. They are also the only one of the six 0-3 playoff teams to actually win a playoff game. Everyone else lost in the Wild Card round. Therefore, no team has gone 0-3 and made it to the Super Bowl or even a conference championship game.
If your Dynasty Owner team started 0-3 in a previous season and made the playoffs, let me know by reaching out on Twitter/X (@SteveVT33) or sending it to Dynasty Owner on Twitter/X. And if you have an 0-3 facing another 0-3 team in Dynasty Owner this week, let me know, and I’ll definitely feature it as the Week 4 Match-up of the Week. That way, everyone who plays Dynasty Owner can see if your team get it’s first win on the season. If they lose and go 0-4, it’s time for you to push the panic button on the 2023 Dynasty Owner season.
Thanks for reading my weekly preview article and for being a Dynasty Owner, especially if you have an 0-3 Dynasty Owner team. In that case, I hope that I offer up some good recommendations for Week 3, you find someone to put in your starting lineup or on your bench, and that helps get your team to 1-3.
Every week of the 14-game Dynasty Owner regular season and three game playoffs, I’ll present a player at each position (QB, RB, WR, TE) who you should have as a Starter in your Dynasty Owner lineup. These won’t be the obvious choices. No recommendations to go ahead and start Tyreek Hill ($30,000,000), who is still the top scoring player in Dynasty Owner after three weeks and has been since Week 1. He’s likely cemented in your starting lineup unless something bad happens or the Dolphins are on bye. Other players who are rostered in 100% (or nearly 100%) of Dynasty Owner leagues with low ADPs won’t be mentioned either. Instead, I’m going to recommend you start players outside the top players at their position, players drafted to be on your bench or practice squad, or players who aren’t on a roster in every Dynasty Owner league or have high ADPs and could be found in the 12th round or later in a typical Dynasty Owner startup draft.
After that, I’ll name one player per position who should be on your Bench or Practice Squad. For these Bench recommendations, it’s just the opposite. I’ll suggest players doing well so far and drafted early in Dynasty Owner startup drafts to be starters and also projected in the top 12 (QBs and TEs) or top 36 (RBs and WRs) in scoring this year. This section is where you might see some surprising players appear. However, the recommended Bench players shouldn’t be in your Starting lineup for the week based on matchups, past performance against a team, or something else.
All stats cited are based on the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system as outlined in the Dynasty Owner Constitution. Standard Dynasty Owner scoring gives you .1 points for every yard rushing or receiving, .1 point for every 2 yards passing, 1 point per reception, 6 points for a rushing, receiving or passing touchdown and 2 points for a successful 2-point conversion (rushing, receiving, or passing). Interceptions or fumbles lost cost you 3 points, while a fumble that is recovered by the player’s team is a loss of only 1 point. Bonus points are available for 100-199 yards rushing (2 points), 200 yards rushing or receiving (6 points), 300-399 yards passing (1 point) and 400 yards passing (4 points). There is also a 3 point bonus for clutch scoring, which is a score that results in a lead change in the final two minutes of the 4th quarter or overtime. Kickoff and punt return touchdowns are worth 6 points for the player and kickoff and punt returns are worth 1 point for every 40 yards.
Any salaries, ADPs and roster percentages listed were current as of the morning of September 28th. All 2023 contract information is currently what is listed on the Dynasty Owner platform (number of years and salaries) and has been taken from Spotrac (https://www.spotrac.com/).
Dynasty Owner Player of the Week
Before we get into Week 4, let’s look at Week 3 and announce the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. The Player of the Week is the only player who could make people forget about Puka Nacua ($1,021,244) as a fantasy football rookie who came out of nowhere. It’s a little early for that speculation after just three games, but when you score as many points as our winner did in Week 3, that’s what happens. Our winner this week is Devon Achane.
Devon Achane ($1,359,362) was playing in only his second career NFL game last week, which is tied for the earliest in his career that a player has been the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. Can you guess the other player who won this award in only his second career NFL game? I’ll give you a hint: he’s a teammate of Achane’s. The answer will appear in the Conclusion section at the end of this article.
Back to Achane who also did something that only a couple of other players have done, which is be the Player of the Week and the best weekly value in Dynasty Owner as well. The first player to do it was Dak Prescott ($40,000,000) back in the first week of the 2019 beta season of Dynasty Owner when he had 49.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on his $680,848 salary for a $13,782 cost per point. The second time was in the final week of the 2020 season with Alvin Kamara ($15,000,000) who was earning just $964,443 at the time and scored 58.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points for a cost per point of $16,571. The third time was with Achane’s teammate, to be named later, and now Achane. So, it has happened less than once per season.
Achane had the highest number of Dynasty Owner fantasy points in a week since his QB Tua Tagovailoa ($7,568,859) had 60.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points back in Week 2 of last year. Achane scored 57.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (203 rushing yards, 4 receptions, 30 receiving yards, 4 TDs). His week was so incredible that it overshadowed the fact that three other players had more points than last week’s Player of the Week winner, Kirk Cousins ($35,000,000) did. I won’t name them to steal any attention from Achane, but if you have one of them on your Dynasty Owner roster, you know who they are. Congratulations to Devon on a pretty incredible game and start of your NFL career.
Week 3 Points: 57.3
2023 Salary: $1,359,362
Cost per Point: $23,724
Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week
Because this is Dynasty Owner and we’re all looking for value from the players on our roster, we also have the Value Player of the Week. As mentioned above, the third Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week was actually only the second most valuable player of the week. They are still our winner though and it’s Brock Purdy.
Brock Purdy ($934,252) finally gets his first Value Player of the Week award of 2023 and it’s overshadowed by another player. Fairly typical for Purdy who was Mr. Irrelevant (last player taken) in the 2022 NFL Draft and is constantly being underestimated by people who say that he’s doing well just because of the 49ers’ “system”. All Purdy has done for his Dynasty Owners since becoming the 49ers’ starting QB is score more than 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in six out of eight games. In the other two games, he had 19.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in his first start in Week 13 last year and a career low of 15.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points last week. His career low is 15.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in basically half a season. Please go and find someone else who has done as well in their first season. I’ll wait…
Done waiting because you aren’t going to find anyone. It’s surprising that this week’s performance of 27.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (310 passing yards, -1 rushing yard, 2 TDs, 1 fumble) is his second best performance and also his second Value Player of the Week. With a salary of under $1 million, it should happen many other times unless the 49ers reward him with a restructured contract one of these days. Until that happens, and even if it happens tomorrow, Purdy’s salary will stay the same for the entire 2023 season, so his Dynasty Owners should continue to enjoy the cost savings and having a QB making under $1 million who is a fringe weekly starting QB on the platform. Congratulations, Brock on your second overall Value Player of the Week award and the first one of the 2023 season!
Week 3 Points: 27.4
2023 Salary: $934,252
Cost per Point: $34,097
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Before we get into the weekly recommendations, I’ll always take a look at how my recommendations from the previous week fared (Good, Bad or Just Ok) and give a recap. Here’s how the four players who I predicted performances worthy of being in your Dynasty Owner starting lineup in Week 3 did.
QB: Dak Prescott ($40,000,000) – 17.8 (Bad recommendation)
Let’s start with the good recommendation. Jake Ferguson had 9.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions for 48 receiving yards) against Arizona and was the TE11 for the week. That’s a low-end starting TE in Dynasty Owner so that was a good recommendation.
We also had a Just Ok recommendation this week, with K.J. Osborn falling just outside of the top 36 WRs with 10.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception, 36 receiving yards, 1 TD). I was wrong, and there was not enough room for him to be in your starting lineup, even with Kirk Cousins throwing for 367 yards and 3 TDs. Osborn was only targeted 3 times despite Cousins attempting 50 passes. The outcome was luckily just okay, as his single reception was a 36-yard TD catch.
Finally, the QB and RB recommendations were bad. Dak Prescott was too close to the Sam Howell ($1,005,400) performance in Week 1 rather than Daniel Jones’ ($40,000,000) performance in Week 2. Prescott also had his first turnover and just 17.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (249 passing yards, 24 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT), which made hm QB21 in Dynasty Owner for the week and not worth a starting lineup spot. A.J. Dillon didn’t do much for a second game in a row without Aaron Jones ($12,000,000) and was held to 33 rushing yards (3.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points).
While Week 3 was a slight bit better than Week 2 due to the Just Ok recommendation, it’s still not where I want to be for these predictions. I’m not pushing the panic button just yet, it’s far too early for that, but I’d like to get back to even since I have more Bad vs. Good recommendations (5 Bad and 4 Good). Here are the guys who are going to get me there by having starting lineup-worthy performances in Week 4.
Jameis Winston (QB – NO): Everybody loves a good revenge game. Jameis Winston ($4,000,000) playing against Tampa Bay where he played for the first five years of his career after he was the number one overall pick by the Buccaneers in the 2015 NFL Draft is just that.
There isn’t a lot of statistical stuff that I can cite to back up this recommendation, and it’s not even the first time he’s played them or his first return trip to Tampa as a starter since this game is in New Orleans. His record against Tampa Bay is mixed. He’s played against them twice (Week 2 of the 2021 season and Week 8 of the 2022 season) and scored a combined 20.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. However, he was injured early in the 2021 game after starting out well with 12.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (56 passing yards, 40 rushing yards, 1 TD). Last year, he played the whole game but had only 8.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (236 passing yards, 2 rushing yards, 1 TD, 3 INTs, 1 fumble). Both of those games were in New Orleans, like this week’s game.
Winston was ok subbing in for Derek Carr ($37,500,000) last week with 101 passing yards (5.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) and no touchdown drives. He also didn’t have a turnover, which is good. However, he can be turnover prone, and Tampa Bay has 7 turnovers (5 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries) on defense already this season. Hopefully Winston has a chance to make good on this recommendation and take advantage of a Buccaneers defense allowing an average of 10.7 yards per pass play, which ranks 25th in the NFL. Start Winston if you grabbed him off the Free Agent Auction this week or if you’ve been stashing him for just this opportunity as long as he’s starting for the Saints.
Khalil Herbert (RB – CHI): After last week’s debacle in Miami, I’d be crazy not to pick someone playing against the Broncos this week. Even if it’s the Bears, I can’t take Roschon Johnson ($1,152,172) because he’s the RB24 right now in Dynasty Owner. As a result, I’ll go with Khalil Herbert ($902,677), who was drafted ahead of Johnson in Dynasty Owner startup drafts this year (88.6 ADP for Herbert vs. 127.3 ADP for Johnson), but was still the 33rd RB taken on average and is ranked as RB43 so far after three games.
Denver allowed 350 rushing yards on 43 carries for an absurd 8.1 yards per carry. They also allowed 5 rushing TDs. They were much better in the two previous weeks than last week, but the scars from that performance may still be there and hopefully the Bears can take advantage. It’s a risk to trust a team averaging only 250 yards of offense per game, but the positive side is that over 100 yards of that (101.7) is rushing, and Herbert is averaging 4.0 yards per carry (23 rushing attempts for 93 rushing yards) himself.
Herbert has nine games with double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 33 career games, including four games with over 90 rushing yards. Not sure if he’ll get that many rushing yards, but it shows that he’s capable of doing it when given the workload, and if the Broncos don’t improve upon their performance from last week, Herbert could do it again. Get Herbert into your starting lineup this week against Denver.
Darius Slayton (WR – NYG): The Giants face off this week against a Seattle defense that might be missing two of its top cornerbacks in Tariq Woolen and Cody Bryant. Safety Jamal Adams will likely be making his 2023 season debut, but that should help to neutralize TE Darren Waller ($17,000,000) who is the Giants best receiver, and force Daniel Jones ($40,000,000) to throw to his WRs more. Out of the Island of Misfit Toys group of WRs for the Giants, the top one is definitely Darius Slayton ($6,000,000).
Slayton has the most targets (17), receiving yards (109) and Dynasty Owner fantasy points (19.9) among the Giants WRs and only trails Parris Campbell ($4,700,000) in receptions. Campbell has 11 receptions, while Slayton has 9. Slayton has been a steady bench option so far with 5 or 6 targets for 3 receptions and games of 4.5, 9.2 and 6.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, respectively. Now, he gets to face the Seahawks secondary that has been poor so far this season and is second worst in receptions and receiving yards allowed, tied for second worst in TDs allowed to WRs.
Sounds like a good time to have the top WR on a poor pass defense team in your Starting lineup. That’s why I’m recommending that you promote him into your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
Cole Turner (TE – WAS): Typically, a TE can be labeled as a Starting TE in Dynasty Owner if he has a week with 10.0 or more Dynasty Owner fantasy points. This season, the weekly TE12 has scored less than double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points twice and the third time, there were several TEs tied as TE12 with 10.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. So far, the Washington Commanders three TEs – John Bates ($1,050,604), Logan Thomas ($8,021,667) and Cole Turner ($999,720) have combined for 43.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and more than 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points every week.
Why is Turner the choice? Thomas is arguably the TE1 for the Commanders, but he didn’t play in Week 3 due to a concussion, but is expected to play in Week 4. That makes it more difficult for Turner, but not impossible. Bates and Turner played 31 snaps each in Week 3 against Buffalo and Turner’s snaps are going up every week. Turner was targeted 7 times for 7.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 35 receiving yards) compared to only 2 targets and 3.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 12 receiving yards) for Bates.
The Eagles have allowed 54.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (18 receptions, 187 receiving yards, 3 TDs) to TEs this season, an average of 18.2 points per game. If Turner gets half of the usual average this week, he’ll be a low-end starter on your Dynasty Owner team. I’m not saying that Turner should start over Travis Kelce ($14,312,500) or Mark Andrews ($14,000,000) but if you don’t have a clear-cut top TE and Turner is on your practice squad or available in the Free Agent Auction (54.79% rostered), then he’ll make a fine streaming choice for the week. Also consider Bates as a late-week bench TE pick-up if Thomas is ruled out of Week 4 before the Sunday morning Free Agent Auction run since he is largely not rostered (10.34%). I wouldn’t go so far as to have Turner as the starter and Bates on my Dynasty Owner Bench. That’s too many Commanders and we all know there’s only one Commander on a ship.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
Now it’s time to look at how each of my bench recommendations from Week 3 worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok).
QB: Geno Smith ($25,000,000) – 19.4 (Good recommendation)
RB: Miles Sanders ($6,350,000) – 17.2 (Bad recommendation)
WR: DJ Moore ($20,628,000) – 13.1 (Just Ok recommendation)
Even with having just two out of four of my Bench recommendations be Good this week, I’ve still picked Good recommendations two-thirds (8 out of 12) of the time so far this season. The Good recommendations of Geno Smith who had 19.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (296 passing yards, -4 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 2-pt conversion) and finished as QB18 for the week, made it three for three in QB recommendations. The same is true at TE as Zach Ertz only had 2.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 6 receiving yards) to make him the third consecutive Good TE Bench recommendation.
The DJ Moore recommendation ended up being Just Ok, as he was a very low-end FLEX Starter with 13.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 41 receiving yards, 1 TD). That recommendation would have been Good if not for Moore’s 9-yard TD pass from Justin Fields ($4,717,989) with less than five minutes to go in the game and the Bears down by 38 points. Finally, the Miles Sanders recommendation was Bad as he was a top 10 RB with 17.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (24 rushing yards, 5 receptions, 38 receiving yards, 1 TD). That’s two Bad RB Bench recommendations in a row, so I’m staying away from Eagles and former Eagles this week.
Without further ado, let’s see which players I’m recommending you leave on your Dynasty Owner Bench (or Practice Squad) in Week 4.
Lamar Jackson (QB – BAL): Technically, Lamar Jackson ($52,000,000) is the QB13 in Dynasty Owner right now and his 87.8 ADP in 2023 Dynasty Owner startup drafts means he was the 15th QB taken on average. However, barring injury, there’s no chance that Russell Wilson ($48,517,647) finishes ahead of Lamar this season, so I’m choosing to ignore him being QB6 right now.
Honestly, I went with Lamar because I don’t think he’ll have a great game against the Browns solid defense, and nobody else in the top 12 stood out to me as having a really bad matchup. Mac Jones ($3,896,588) is QB9 right now, but his ADP was higher than Lamar’s (98.2) and he’s also unlikely to finish as a top 12 QB. I think Mac will likely struggle with Dallas’ defense, but picking him as a Bench QB wasn’t as much of a “recommendation” as saying to bench Lamar. Also, the Browns’ defense might be better now that Trevon Diggs is out for the season for Dallas as evidenced by how they played against Arizona.
Lamar has ripped off two good games in a row after being stymied by Houston and scoring just 5.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1. The Browns have allowed QBs to pass for only 408 yards in the first three games and rush for -8 yards. The -8 yards is very impressive, even if the QBs they have faced, Joe Burrow ($9,047,534), Kenny Pickett ($3,516,976) and Ryan Tannehill ($29,500,000) aren’t exactly known for running the ball as well as Lamar. Even if he has a decent game and scores around 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, it won’t be enough to be a starting QB so leave Lamar Jackson on your Dynasty Owner bench this week.
Joe Mixon (RB – CIN): So far this season, Joe Mixon ($5,750,000) has been getting by on quantity, not quality. He’s RB15 for the season so far, but is only averaging 4.0 yards per carry and 7.3 yards per reception. It’s just that he’s gotten 16, 17 and 20 touches in each of the first three games. All of those numbers are in line with his averages for the past couple of years as he’s been averaging over 20 touches per game in those seasons. With the Bengals playing Tennessee’s stout run defense in Week 4, I’m concerned that Mixon isn’t going to get the volume he needs to be a starting RB.
Tennessee is allowing just 2.7 yards per carry to RBs (58 carries for 156 rushing yards). Their yards per reception is higher at 9.4, but RBs have only caught 8 passes against them this season. Since the Titans are allowing 275.3 net passing yards per game and WRs to gain 230.0 receiving yards per game, I would expect Cincinnati to attack them by having Joe Burrow throw passes to his WR trio of Ja’Marr Chase ($7,704,910), Tee Higgins ($2,171,696) and Tyler Boyd ($10,750,000) instead of giving Mixon the ball 20 times.
Sorry Joe, but I’m going to have to recommend that you take a seat on the Dynasty Owner Bench. I traded for Mixon this off-season in my beta league, and I’m taking my own recommendation and having Mixon on my bench with Javonte Williams ($2,216,438) and Jerome Ford ($995,537) as my starting RBs and Kenneth Walker ($2,110,395) in the FLEX position.
Garrett Wilson (WR – NYJ): I had Garrett Wilson ($5,138,502) as a late first round Dynasty Owner startup draft pick with Aaron Rodgers ($37,500,000) at QB and he was with an ADP of 9.1. However, that was with Rodgers at QB. The sad reality is that with Zach Wilson ($8,787,670) at QB for the Jets, Garrett Wilson is the WR32 and a very low-end FLEX starter through the first three weeks of the 2023 season, with some average games but nothing worthy of being a first-round draft pick.
He has weeks with 14.4, 16.3 and 9.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and had to come up with an incredible catch to score his TD against Buffalo and had a 68-yard TD against Dallas in two of those average weeks. Now, Wilson has a tough shadow match-up against L’Jarius Sneed of the Chiefs who held DJ Moore to zero catches on three targets last week and Calvin Ridley ($11,116,000) to only 2 receptions and 32 receiving yards on seven targets in Week 2. Wilson needs help to be better than average against Sneed and Zach Wilson isn’t likely to be that help. That’s why I’m going back to it again here in Week 4, even though my Week 2 recommendation to Bench Wilson was Bad. Put Garrett Wilson on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Hunter Henry (TE – NE): Hunter Henry ($12,500,000) was the top scoring TE in Dynasty Owner in Week 1 with 16.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 56 receiving yards, 1 TD) and he followed it up with an even better Week 2 when he had 17.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions, 52 receiving yards, 1 TD). However, that stopped in Week 3 as the Jets held him to just 3.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 17 receiving yards). Not surprisingly, the Jets defense was the best one that Henry and the Patriots faced all season.
Now, the Patriots head down to Dallas to play the Cowboys and since Henry is still TE3 (and likely to stay in the top 12 for a couple of more weeks), I can choose him as the TE to leave on your Dynasty Owner Bench. Henry will still get targeted by Mac Jones as he has been targeted 18 times already this season. It’s just that I expect the same thing that happened in the Jets game to happen this week.
Just like for Joe Mixon, I’m putting Henry on my bench in another Dynasty Owner league and going with my starting lineup recommendation (Cole Turner) instead. This wasn’t planned at all. I have Turner in three leagues and Henry in two, but forgot that I have them together in League #80545 and was able to make that switch. Hopefully, it works out as I’m recommending.
Free Agent Auction Targets Update
Now it’s time to recap the players recommended in Jay’s weekly Free Agent Auction targets article and see how much their Dynasty Owner roster percentage has increased since the start of Week 4. Jay gave us six players this week, probably because one of the players in his top five was a kicker. Bonus content is always good, just like overtime and extra innings.
There have been two Free Agent Auction runs already this week – Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern) and Thursday at 5 AM (Eastern), so some Dynasty Owners have had two chances to go pick up these guys in the Free Agent Auction. Hope you bid enough if you wanted to get them!
Player
Position
Team
Salary
Week 3 Roster %
Current Roster %
Change
Jameis Winston
QB
NO
$4,000,000
24.14%
41.76%
17.62%
Dontayvion Wicks
WR
GB
$1,035,637
34.87%
37.93%
3.06%
Kendrick Bourne
WR
NE
$5,000,000
69.73%
72.80%
3.07%
Melvin Gordon
RB
BAL
$1,165,000
36.02%
52.49%
16.47%
Matt Gay
K
IND
$5,625,000
65.90%
67.43%
1.53%
Kylen Granson
TE
IND
$1,046,592
68.20%
69.35%
1.15%
Less Free Agent Auction activity compared to other players in previous weeks. In the Week 2 preview article, three players, including Bourne, were listed and went up by over 25 percentage points. Last week, both Josh Reynolds ($3,000,000) and Matt Breida ($1,400,000) went up by over 20 percentage points and both cleared the 80% rostered rate that disqualifies them from being selected again. This week, there are two players with an over-15 percentage point increase, and the rest are up less than 5 percentage points.
It’s not a surprise that few Dynasty Owners picked up Matt Gay, even though he had 30.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 3. His salary is second highest to Justin Tucker ($6,000,000) among kickers in Dynasty Owner and he was already rostered in almost two-thirds (65.9%) of leagues. Plus, he had just 11.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in the first two weeks combined and kickers are difficult to predict on a week-to-week basis. If another kicker were to get released, his roster percentage may increase more as Dynasty Owners see who’s available as a replacement.
The good news for you readers is that many of you still have a chance to go get these players in the Free Agent Auction. Happy bidding and hope everyone got who they wanted, even guys not on Jay’s list, in the Free Agent Auction.
Match-Up of the Week and Chase for the Ring Leaderboard
Are you missing the Dynasty Owner Match-Up of the Week and Chase for the Ring standings that used to appear here? Then head over and follow me on Twitter/X (@SteveVT33) to see what happened in Week 3. I went back to having only one Match-up of the Week for Week 3 after having two of them in Week 2. Reach out to me on Twitter/X if you’d like to be the Match-up of the Week sometime in the future.
The updated Chase for the Ring Leaderboard will also be posted on Twitter/X as well even though anyone can access it at https://app.dynastyowner.com/chase-for-the-ring. It’s updated live now, so your team name could pop up in the top 100 at any time.
Slightly longer versions of the Match-up of the Week and the Chase for the Ring Leaderboard will also appear on the Dynasty Owner thread on Reddit, as well as Facebook and Instagram on occasion. Plus, the Chase for the Ring leaderboard Top 10 will definitely appear in a weekly newsletter sent out on Fridays by Dynasty Owner.
Conclusion
The answer to the question in the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week section is Dolphins backup QB Mike White ($4,000,000) who was the Player of the Week in Week 8 of the 2021 season with 38.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points when he played for the Jets. It was only his second NFL game, even though he had been drafted in 2018, as he didn’t play until he came in to replace an injured Zach Wilson in Week 7.
Congratulations to you if you got the answer correct. No shame if you got it wrong as it wasn’t easy at all. It’s also not easy to win in Dynasty Owner so don’t get down if you have an 0-3 Dynasty Owner team. Everyone is playing against some of the best fantasy football players out there and you have to balance salaries and contracts in Dynasty Owner in addition to bye weeks and everything else in a “regular” dynasty fantasy football league. That’s what makes Dynasty Owner so challenging and rewarding if you make the playoffs and even sweeter if you make a League Championship game, win your League and appear on the Chase for the Ring leaderboard at the end of the season, or even sometime during the season.
If you were trying to decide whether to have some of these players in your Dynasty Owner starting lineup or even in your lineup in a non-Dynasty Owner league, regardless of whether you are ready to push the panic button on that team, maybe my analysis and recommendation helped you make the ultimate Start-Bench (or Start-Sit) decision. While some Dynasty Owners may heed my advice, others might disagree, or not have a better option for their Starting lineup and choose to ignore a Bench recommendation. Other Dynasty Owners may not need Starting lineup help as they have a stud player at a position who isn’t moving to the Bench unless he’s injured or on bye.
If you like, or dislike, these recommendations, think you can do better, or even agree and want everyone to know, please comment when this article is published by Dynasty Owner on Twitter/X, or like the article posted on Facebook, Instagram or Reddit and add your comment there. We appreciate the feedback from our fellow Dynasty Owners and I’m just happy that you took time to read my content and maybe even comment on it.
The Week 4 Free Agent Auction targets article was published on Tuesday and Jay Pounds will be back every Tuesday during the 2023 season with a list of five (and sometimes six as a bonus like this week) widely available players in Dynasty Owner to help everyone with their Free Agent Auction bids for the first Auction run of the week on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern). We also have the weekly Livestream with me and Dynasty Owner CEO Tim Peffer, which will be live on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 PM (Eastern) this week and likely for the rest of the 2023 season. Hopefully you can watch live or watched live if you are reading this after it aired. We had a lively debate last week between myself and 2021 Chase for the Ring Champion SKOL Vikings (aka Jeff Rachlin), so if you missed that episode, then go watch on the Dynasty Owner YouTube channel.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Steven Van Tassell is the Head of Content for Dynasty Owner
Dynasty Owners, we are three weeks through the NFL season and finally starting to get a good feel for what to expect from most of our beloved fantasy players, as well as a good read on where our fantasy teams are headed this season. Should your Dynasty Owner team(s) go “all in” and make a run at a League Championship, or should you start looking to future seasons and get younger or cheaper?
Before I talk about anything else, I want to tell you about a game of Madden I played on Sunday. During the game, I wanted to score as many points as possible, and boy was I successful in my quest! I finished the game with a final score of 70-20, and my running backs accounted for 8 total touchdowns. I’m sure you all know where I am going with this. The Dolphins put on a show on Sunday, and I swear they are still scoring touchdowns! If you had either Raheem Mostert ($2,800,000), or Devon Achane ($1,359,362) in your Dynasty Owner starting lineup or even on your bench, you were a happy camper this past weekend.
In other news around the NFL, all 3 undefeated teams from the NFC South are no longer undefeated, Trevor Lawrence ($9,198,372) struggled once again, and the Vikings are now 0-3. Will the Vikings look into trading Kirk Cousins ($35,000,000) if they lose their Week 4 game against the Panthers? I would be willing to bet quite a bit of dough that Cousins is already on the market and will be gone by Tuesday should the Vikings fall to 0-4. The last team I want to touch on is those same old Cowboys. Is there a team in the NFL that has so much hope every single year only to lose games in critical moments? The Cowboys are fighting to keep pace with the Eagles and will be doing so all season long. With that comes the need to win games against lesser opponents, and yet the Cowboys defense we all thought was elite let Joshua Dobbs ($2,000,000) tear them up all Sunday long. Did the Cowboys just have a bad game, or are they an average team once again? Let me know what you think on X (formerly known as Twitter)
If you are new to this series of articles, there is a small list of requirements, with the main one being that the player must be 80% rostered or below in Dynasty Owner. The only other requirement I have is that I would like the player to have a salary of $8,000,000 or less, but I will put a higher salary player on the list if I feel they are worth it. Free Agent Auction bids will process on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern) for this upcoming week, so there’s still time to get your bids in for Week 4. The Bid listed below is my recommended amount to secure the player for your Dynasty Owner team in the Wednesday Free Agent Auction run in a typical Dynasty Owner league.
You all must be tired of hearing this by now, but I am going to say it until I don’t believe it anymore. In Dynasty Owner, cheap quarterbacks are gold! On this platform, winning consistently with a quarterback that finishes outside of the top 10 is very difficult to do and, in most cases, will take a fair amount of luck on your side. All of that said, I don’t think Jameis Winston is going to be a top-10 quarterback, nor do I think he is going to win you games, but he does make for an excellent bench option here on Dynasty Owner. I think the Dolphins just scored again. Unlike the Dolphins, Winston failed to lead the Saints to points on Sunday, but with a full week to prepare as the starter, he should be much better prepared in Week 4, and it will likely result in better numbers. Let’s not forget that Winston threw for over 30 touchdowns in a season not long ago. Let’s forget that he also threw over 30 interceptions in that same season. If you want Winston, you better be prepared to spend Dynasty Dollars; quarterbacks rarely ever come cheap. Even if they are just a couple-week rental.
I know the first response most will have to this pick-up is the fact that Dontayvion Wicks is performing so well without his teammate and Packers’ lead receiver, Christian Watson ($2,310,258), on the field. However, Wicks has shown promise and is a fantastic future stash. In fact, Wicks’ big performances could come much sooner than expected, with Watson failing to see the field through three weeks of play. In Watson’s absence, Wicks started the year slow but is becoming more involved in the game plan each week. In Week 2, Wicks made himself known by catching 2 passes for 40 yards and a touchdown (12.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). In Week 3, Wicks received even more action, catching 4 passes for 45 yards (8.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). Wow, another Dolphin touchdown! If any of the guys in front of Wicks get injured or if Watson struggles to stay healthy upon his return, Wicks could be a viable fantasy option as soon as this season. At this point, Wicks is a stash with potential, but regardless, he deserves to be rostered by more Dynasty Owners.
Another week, another appearance for Patriots wide receiver Kendrick Bourne. Bourne did not have a huge week by any means, but he once again had the same or more targets than any other receiver on the Patriots’ roster. In Week 3, the Patriots clearly had a game plan to run the ball a ton, as both Rhamondre Stevenson ($1,057,264) and Ezekiel Elliot ($3,000,000) had over 15 carries in what looked like a football game from the 1980s in high definition. Despite the lackluster fantasy numbers from the Patriots offense as a whole, Bourne still managed to grab 4 catches for 46 yards in route to 8.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. I have never made Bourne out to be anything more than a player you can put on your bench and forget about, and he has been just that through three games. Touchdown Miami! I am expecting what we have seen from Bourne over the past two weeks to be his floor this season, and I don’t think he has hit his ceiling just yet. Better days are ahead for the Patriots de facto number 1 receiver.
I had Melvin Gordon on this list for Week 2, and I am sure many of you chuckled while reading it. Here we are two weeks later, and Gordon is likely in line for a big workload in Week 4. I know Gordon is seeing the field because of injury, but at this point, it seems you can count on a few Ravens’ running backs going down to injury throughout the season. I think Ray Rice was their last running back to start and stay healthy for an entire season. Gordon is well past his prime, but as we have seen with players like Kenyan Drake ($1,317,500), Latavius Murray ($1,317,500), and even Gordon himself, being a star running back doesn’t matter much these days when it comes to being a viable fantasy option. If Gordon is able to see 15 or more touches this week, he will be a must-have bench player in Dynasty Owner with the way the running back position currently looks. The Dolphins find the end zone again! Gordon also has the benefit of playing on a team that loves to run the ball and almost always runs the ball effectively, which makes him a must pick up for most Dynasty Owners.
Bid – $3,000,000 – I know it seems high, but people are desperate
I won’t spend a whole lot of time on this one and will throw in a sixth player this week, as not many will give Matt Gay the credit he is due after his historic Week 3 performance. We interrupt this message to let you know that the Dolphins have scored again! In Week 3, the Colts could not get near the red zone almost all game long, resulting in Gay going 5 of 5 on field goals, with 4 of those kicks coming from 50 yards or more. Gay put up 30.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and was one of the top scoring players of the week not wearing a Dolphins uniform.
I swear to you all it’s pure coincidence that the bonus player on this list is teammates with Matt Gay who the reason I have a bonus player on the list. Granson had a fairly quiet Week 3, but it’s now obvious that he has established himself as the top tight end in Indianapolis. One big reason I am not too concerned with Granson’s lack of production is the fact the Colts had backup quarterback Gardner Minshew ($3,500,000) going with rookie Anthony Richardson ($8,498,508) out because of injury. If Granson continues to struggle after Richardsons return, then I will start to worry. Until then, Granson is a great player to stash and see what happens. Did you hear that? The Dolphins crowd is cheering again!
Bid – $1,000,000
Thank you all for reading! Be sure to check out all of the upcoming articles from me and Steve plus the Dynasty Owner Livestream, now every Thursday afternoon at 4:00 PM (Eastern). Stay safe out there, and good luck on your 2023 Chase for the Ring!
It’s Week 3 of the Dynasty Owner season and a lot of teams have had a split decision in their weekly match-ups. Three of the four teams highlighted in the Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week on Twitter/X, including King of Kings and PayDaBills in League #31039 and RAVENS1 who lost to The Black Pearl in League #178749, have a win and a loss already so their records are 1-1. There are likely lots of 1-1 teams in every Dynasty Owner league. I’m sure that a lot of readers have a 1-1 team, and six out of my seven Dynasty Owner teams are in that position. Hopefully someone will suggest a match-up of 1-1 teams for this week’s Match-up of the Week in honor of this article.
It’s also true in the NFL as 16 out of 32 teams have a 1-1 record after two weeks. Every division except the NFC South has at least one 1-1 team with the NFC South having three undefeated teams (Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and one winless team (Carolina Panthers).
When I think of split decisions in sports, I mostly think of boxing or MMA when the fight goes to the limit and the judges vote on the winner. I’m not a huge fan of that as it’s ripe of controversy, poor judging and other shenanigans, but it’s the only way to decide unless every fight that goes the distance is declared a draw. We don’t have ties in Dynasty Owner, but my long-time redraft league does, and NFL games can end up in a tie as well.
A more likely fantasy football split decision is when you have two equal players at a position, but can only start one of them. At least in Dynasty Owner, you can put one in your Starting lineup and the other one on your Bench, so you get some points from each player. However, those decisions can be difficult and the opportunity to choose incorrectly and possibly cost yourself a match-up always exists. That’s bad, but what’s worse would be having to decide which one of two bad players you need to have in your Starting lineup or what end of the roster, unlikely to play much player should go in a Bench spot and likely earn your Dynasty Owner team a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points).
Thanks for reading my weekly preview article and for being a Dynasty Owner. Hopefully you weren’t split on whether to read it and if you were, I guess reading won out. In return for reading being the winner, I’ll try to make it worth your time by offering up some good recommendations for Week 3.
Every week of the 14-game Dynasty Owner regular season and three game playoffs, I’ll present a player at each position (QB, RB, WR, TE) who you should have as a Starter in your Dynasty Owner lineup. These won’t be the obvious choices. No recommendations to go ahead and start players like Tyreek Hill ($30,000,000) who is currently the top scoring player in Dynasty Owner. He’s likely cemented in your Starting lineup unless something bad happens, or the Dolphins are on bye. Other players who are rostered in 100% (or nearly 100%) of Dynasty Owner leagues with low ADPs won’t be mentioned either. Instead, I’m going to recommend you Start players outside the top players at their position, players drafted to be on your Bench or Practice Squad, or players who aren’t on a roster in every Dynasty Owner league or have high ADPs and could be found in the 12th round or later in a typical Dynasty Owner startup draft.
After that, I’ll name one player per position who should be on your Bench or Practice Squad. For these Bench recommendations, it’s just the opposite. I’ll suggest players doing well so far and drafted early in Dynasty Owner startup drafts to be Starters, and also projected in the top 12 (QBs and TEs) or top 36 (RBs and WRs) in scoring this year. This section is where you might see some surprising players appear. However, the recommended Bench players shouldn’t be in your Starting lineup for the week based on matchups, past performance against a team or something else.
All stats cited are based on the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system as outlined in the Dynasty Owner Constitution. Standard Dynasty Owner scoring gives you .1 points for every yard rushing or receiving, .1 point for every 2 yards passing, 1 point per reception, 6 points for a rushing, receiving or passing touchdown and 2 points for a successful 2-point conversion (rushing, receiving, or passing). Interceptions or fumbles lost cost you 3 points, while a fumble that is recovered by the player’s team is a loss of only 1 point. Bonus points are available for 100-199 yards rushing (2 points), 200 yards rushing or receiving (6 points), 300-399 yards passing (1 point) and 400 yards passing (4 points). There is also a 3 point bonus for clutch scoring, which is a score that results in a lead change in the final two minutes of the 4th quarter or overtime. Kickoff and punt return touchdowns are worth 6 points for the player and kickoff and punt returns are worth 1 point for every 40 yards.
Any salaries, ADPs and roster percentages listed were current as of the morning of September 21st. 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 3, let’s look at Week 2 and announce the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week. Everyone has probably seen him in the table read for the 2023 NFL season commercial many times already and will likely see him in additional commercials throughout the season. That’s right, our winner this week is none other than Kirk-o, also known as Kirk Cousins.
This is the fifth season of Dynasty Owner and it’s also the fifth season in which Kirk Cousins ($35,000,000) has scored over 40.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in a single week. This season, it came in Week 2 as he scored 40.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (364 passing yards, 4 TDs, 1 lost fumble). This was his lowest 40.0 point week with the highest coming in the final week of the 2020 season when he rang up 48.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on the Lions. Despite having one 40.0 point week per season (and only one per season so far during his career), Cousins has only won the Player of the Week award once overall before. Back in the first week of the 2022 Dynasty Owner playoffs (Week 15), he put up 47.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. His Dynasty Owners are hoping it’s the first of many weeks this year that Cousins has with more than 40.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. It’s possible since he started much earlier on it than in previous seasons. They are also hoping for more commercials featuring Kirk-o during the 2023 NFL season too.
Week 2 Points: 40.2
2023 Salary: $35,000,000
Cost per Point: $870,647
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. The second Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week is probably the player who has opened the most eyes in the first two weeks of this 2023 NFL season. The winner is: Puka Nacua
After starting his NFL career with 15 targets and 21.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (10 receptions for 119 receiving yards), but not winning the Value Player of the Week award, it seemed like Puka Nacua ($1,021,244) might not have another chance. In response, Nacua had more targets, receptions, receiving yards and Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 2. He also had a pair of rushing attempts, but still no touchdowns despite 35 targets and 25 receptions over the first two weeks. Nacua finished Week 2 with 30.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (15 receptions, 147 receiving yards, 4 rushing yards). It’ll be interesting to see how many Dynasty Owner fantasy points he scores when he finally gets a TD. It’ll also be interesting what happens to him when Cooper Kupp ($26,700,000) returns to the Rams after starting the season on Injured Reserve. Nacua edged out Broncos WR Brandon Johnson who had 20.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions, 66 receiving yards, 2 TDs) for the NFL minimum salary of $750,000. Just another 1.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and Johnson would have been the Value Player of the Week and made it two minimum salary players in a row after Saints WR Rashid Shaheed ($750,000) was our Week 1 victor. For now, everyone who drafted Nacua this year in Dynasty Owner can take a well-deserved victory lap after the first two weeks and winning his first Value Player of the Week award.
Week 2 Points: 30.1
2023 Salary: $1,021,244
Cost per Point: $33,928
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Before we get into the weekly recommendations, I’ll always take a look at how my recommendations from the previous week fared (Good, Bad or Just Ok) and give a recap. I predicted performances worthy of being in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup for these four players in Week 2. Here’s how each one did:
QB: Mac Jones ($3,896,588) – 17.0 (Bad recommendation)
RB: Jamaal Williams ($4,000,000) – 2.9 (Bad recommendation)
TE: Adam Trautman ($1,124,851) – 0.0 (Bad recommendation)
Let’s start with the Good recommendation. Nico Collins had the best game of his short career with 27.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (7 receptions, 146 receiving yards, 1 TD) and was a top 10 WR for the week. Unfortunately, that’s it as the other three recommendations were Bad.
It doesn’t get much worse than the Adam Trautman recommendation. A Blutarsky) is almost the worst thing you can have as a member of a Dynasty Owner Starting lineup. Negative point games are pretty rare, although I know of at least one this week. The other bad part was that Trautman was only targeted once after a good first game and a few days of hype about being poised for a prominent role and relied on even more as a receiving threat. So much for that idea.
Jamaal Williams got injured in the second quarter of the Saints’ victory over the Panthers on Monday night, but unlike some sportsbooks that refund Over bets placed on injured players, I don’t give myself that allowance. If a defensive player gets injured and allows someone to do well and beat projections, they don’t void bets. Injuries are a part of football, so you can’t take the good outcomes due to injuries and ignore the bad ones. As a result of the injury, Williams only had 29 rushing yards (2.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), so recommending him for your Starting lineup was Bad. Finally, Mac Jones had a slightly below average game and finished with just 17.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (231 passing yards, 25 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT). That was a low-end Bench QB score for this week.
The verdict is a split decision on the 2023 Starting lineup recommendations to date after just one Good Week 2 recommendation. Let’s move on and try to improve with these Week 3 recommendations.
Dak Prescott (QB – DAL): As much as I would love to pick Josh Allen ($43,005,667) this week since he’s QB14 in Dynasty Owner after two weeks and faces off against the Washington Commanders in Week 3, that’s a complete violation of the “rules” I’ve set up.
Dak Prescott ($40,000,000) is a different story despite having nearly the same salary as Allen since Prescott is ranked as QB22 and was drafted well outside of the top dozen QBs with an ADP of 182.8 in Dynasty Owner startup drafts this season. He was actually the 30th QB taken on average, behind even Daniel Jones ($40,000,000) with an ADP of 169.0 and Deshaun Watson ($46,000,000) with an ADP of 173.5. That’s surprising as Prescott is better than both of those guys.
After only scoring just 7.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points against the Giants in Week 1, Prescott had 26.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (255 passing yards, 14 rushing yards, 2 TDs) in Week 2 against a solid Jets defense. He has yet to turn the ball over and gets to face a Cardinals defense that gave up 17.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to Sam Howell ($1,005,400) in Week 1, then surrendered 37.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to Jones in Week 2. Somewhere in between that for Prescott in Week 3 will be good enough to make him a starting QB, so don’t hesitate to put him in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
A.J. Dillon (RB – GB): This may appear to be a surprise pick because A.J. Dillon ($1,321,458) had an ADP of 95.5 in 2023 Dynasty Owner startup drafts, which means he was a late eighth round pick on average. It was his worst ADP in four seasons. He’s also the Packers’ top RB with Aaron Jones ($12,000,000) not practicing yet this week and questionable with a hamstring injury after having sat out Week 2.
However, if you rank RBs by 2023 ADP, you’ll find that Dillon was the 35th RB taken on average and is ranked as RB42 in Dynasty Owner fantasy points with just 12.9 (74 rushing yards, 3 receptions, 25 receiving yards). Those are Bench RB statistics right there so far this season so Dillon shouldn’t be in your Starting lineup based on those objective metrics. Therefore, I can recommend at you put him in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and that’s what I’m going to do now.
It’s because of the Packers match-up against the Saints this week. They allowed Miles Sanders ($6,350,000) and Chuba Hubbard ($1,048,294) to combine for 17.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (59 rushing yards, 8 receptions, 38 receiving yards) last week and with Jones likely out (that’s my prediction on Thursday morning), there’s little competition for Dillon. Dillon played 34 out of 50 snaps (68%) last week and the other two RBs, Emanuel Wilson ($750,000) and Patrick Taylor ($825,000), had only four rushing attempts and one target while they were on the field. They only had six rushing yards (0.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), so I’d be comfortable that Dillon will get almost all of the Week 3 RB touches and be worth using in my Week 3 Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
K.J. Osborn (WR – MIN): The Chargers pass defense has been dreadful this season so far. They allowed 21 receptions for 375 receiving yards and 3 TDs to Miami WRs in Week 1 then 11 receptions for 190 receiving yards and 1 TD to a much inferior group of Tennessee WRs in Week 2. There should be plenty of room for all three Vikings WRs, Justin Jefferson ($3,280,701), Jordan Addison ($3,432,935) and K.J. Osborn ($890,693) to thrive in Week 3. Both Jefferson and Addison were drafted to be Starters, but Osborn had an ADP of 189.4 despite his low salary.
Osborn has been targeted 12 times over the first two weeks (six targets in each game) with 3 receptions per game and yardage totals in the 30s (31 yards in Week 1 and 34 yards in Week 2). He caught a TD pass from Kirk Cousins in Week 2 to give him 12.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Cousins has thrown 88 passes in two games (44 attempts in each game) and there’s no reason for that volume to go down, even with Vikings trade for Cam Akers ($1,543,259) on Wednesday. Osborn has scored double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points in five out of his last seven games over the past two seasons as well and I’m predicting that he makes it six out of eight games this week. That’ll make him good enough to be someone you want in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
Jake Ferguson (TE – DAL): Jake Ferguson ($1,091,221) has been the clear top TE for the Cowboys through the first two games of the season. He leads all Cowboys’ TEs in snaps, targets and Dynasty Owner fantasy points. All three TEs for the team have gotten some playing time, but Ferguson has played in nearly two-thirds (65%) of the offensive snaps (94 out of 145) compared to 59 snaps for fellow second year player Peyton Hendershot ($858,333) and 47 snaps for rookie Luke Schoonmaker ($1,566,672). In terms of targets, Ferguson is tied for second on the team with Tony Pollard ($10,091,000) as both have been targeted 11 times. Ferguson got 7 targets in Week 1 against the Giants and 4 targets in Week 2 against the Jets. The other two Cowboys’ TEs have a combined one target (and one rushing attempt) this season.
That’s good news for Dynasty Owners with Ferguson on their roster. Additional good news is that the Cowboys are playing Arizona this week and the Cardinals are traditionally dreadful against TEs. In 2022, they allowed a league high 101 receptions and 12 TD receptions by TEs for 1,084 receiving yards, which was third worst. That’s a team that I want my Dynasty Owner Starting TE to be facing. You might ask, has it lasted into 2023 with a new coach in Arizona?
The answer is an emphatic Yes! Logan Thomas ($8,021,667) of the Washington Commanders got targeted 8 times in Week 1 and scored 8.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 43 receiving yards), while Darren Waller got targeted 8 times in Week 2 for 13.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions for 76 receiving yards). That concludes my reasons for putting Jake Ferguson into your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup this week.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
Now it’s the time to look at how my Bench recommendations from Week 2 worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok). It was a split decision for them with two Good and two Bad recommendations. Here’s how individual Week 2 recommendation did:
QB: Tua Tagovailoa ($7,568,859) – 13.7 (Good recommendation)
RB: D’Andre Swift ($2,134,729) – 29.1 (Bad recommendation)
WR: Garrett Wilson ($5,138,502) – 16.3 (Bad recommendation)
TE: Pat Freiermuth ($1,507,045) – 1.2 (Good recommendation)
So much for the ability to pick Thursday games that I touted in last week’s article. By picking D’Andre Swift, who scored 29.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (175 rushing yards, 3 receptions, 6 receiving yards, 1 TD), I ruined my chances to keep my perfect record intact three days earlier than normal. It would have ended on Sunday in the late afternoon games anyways as Garrett Wilson had a long TD catch of 68 yards from Zach Wilson ($8,787,670). He didn’t have much else despite being targeted eight times, finishing with 16.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions, 83 receiving yards, 1 TD).
On the other hand, recommended that Dynasty Owners put the QB1 in Dynasty Owner after one week (Tua Tagovailoa) turned out just fine and was a Good recommendations. Tua only had 13.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (249 passing yards, 3 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 2 fumbles). His Dynasty Owners are lucky that the Dolphins recovered both fumbles, or he would have lost 4.0 more points. As predicted, the Browns’ defense held Pat Freiermuth to minimal production even though the Steelers beat the Browns on Monday night. Just one target and 1.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception for 2 receiving yards) is an obvious player who should have been on either your Practice Squad or Bench last week.
While a split decision was fine, I’d like to get back to a perfect Good recommendation week like I had in Week 1. With that in mind, here are the guys who I’m recommending you leave on your Dynasty Owner Bench (or Practice Squad) in Week 3.
Geno Smith (QB – SEA): This brings me zero joy as I have Geno Smith ($25,000,000) as a QB in a guillotine league this year, almost got eliminated last week, didn’t win any QB bids and have few other options this week except picking up Gardner Minshew ($3,500,000). Smith was a fantasy football and Dynasty Owner darling last year when he finished as QB6 at a salary of only $3.5 million.
This year, he’s had one below average game with 12.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and one very good game with 34.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. His 46.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (440 passing yards, 26 rushing yards, 3 TDs) ranks him as QB9 for the 2023 season. He was the 19th QB drafted on average in 2023 Dynasty Owner startup leagues, but experienced Dynasty Owners knows that sometimes you draft your Bench QB who’s playing on a rookie deal before your Starting QB. That’s likely the case for many Dynasty Owners with Geno.
If you did that with Smith, you may want to flip your Starter and Bench QBs this week with Carolina visiting Seattle. Carolina is only allowing 5.4 yards per pass attempt (eighth best in the NFL) and has given up just 351 yards passing and one passing TDs so far. Admittedly, they played Desmond Ridder ($1,340,740) and Derek Carr ($37,500,000), but is Geno that much better than those two guys? The answer is “not really” for me, so I’m not confident Geno will be worth having in your Starting lineup, or my guillotine league lineup, this week.
Miles Sanders (RB – CAR): I was surprised that Seattle is one of the better defenses so far this year in yards allowed per carry against opposing RBs (2.7). It’s difficult to rationalize as they have allowed 97.0 yards rushing per game and 4 rushing TDs so far (3 against the Rams and 1 against Detroit). That inflates how many Dynasty Owner fantasy points they have given up to RBs and in each game as does the fact that the Rams rushed the ball 40 times, and the Lions ran it 27 times against them.
Enter Miles Sanders ($6,350,000) and the Carolina Panthers. Sanders has gotten quite a bit of rushing volume this season with 32 carries, but for only 115 rushing yards (3.6 yards per carry). He has scored only 18.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, but that’s good enough to be RB31 on the season (which goes up to RB29 when you remove RBs who are out for Week 3). That’s a very low-end Starter at either the RB2 or FLEX spot on your Dynasty Owner team and when you combine that with his 52.7 ADP in 2023 Dynasty Owner startup drafts, you have a RB who is expected to be in your Starting lineup.
I’m concerned that Sanders might get a TD against Seattle since they have allowed four of them already, but if the Seahawks keep him out of the end zone, he’ll only be good enough for your Bench.
DJ Moore (WR – CHI): I hope that Dynasty Owner CEO Tim Peffer understands that this is a shadow cornerback thing, not an anti-DJ Moore ($20,628,000) thing. Moore is expected to be shadowed this week by L’Jarius Sneed of the Chiefs who held Calvin Ridley ($11,116,000) to 5.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 32 receiving yards) on 8 targets last week. I think Ridley is better than Moore and has a better passing QB too, so if Sneed held Ridley down, then he’s likely to do the same thing this week to Moore.
Moore’s outing last week was encouraging as he was targeted seven times and scored 16.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions for 104 receiving yards). However, that was just one week removed from a 4.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy point (2 receptions for 25 receiving yards) on just two targets.
With the tumultuous week at Halas Hall already highlighted by the resignation of their defensive coordinator and QB Justin Fields ($4,717,989) seemingly calling out his offensive coordinator during a press conference, the last thing that the Bears likely need to see are the defending Super Bowl Champions who have split the first two games on their schedule. The Chiefs have only allowed 30 points to opposing offenses in two weeks and the Lions and Jaguars have much better offenses than the Bears. With all that said, I’ve split my WR recommendations (one Good and one Bad) so far, but it’s an easy decision for me to recommend leaving Moore on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Zach Ertz (TE – ARI): It’s a little topsy-turvy at the TE position right now. Both Travis Kelce ($14,312,500) and Mark Andrews ($14,000,000) missed Week 1 and are outside of the top 12 TEs right now along with five of the other TEs with ADPs of under 100.0 in Dynasty Owner startup drafts. I’m going to have to go with someone in the top 12 right now, but who wasn’t drafted too highly rostered, and isn’t in a majority of Dynasty Owner leagues either.
Zach Ertz ($10,550,000) fits all three of those criteria and is TE7 with 19.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (12 receptions for 77 receiving yards). For me, I have him here because of the Cardinals’ matchup against the Cowboys and their solid pass defense so far this season, even though they have let up 16.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to TEs so far this year with Darren Waller ($17,000,000) having 6.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions for 36 receiving yards) in Week 1 and Tyler Conklin ($6,750,000) getting 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions for 50 receiving yards) in Week 2.
That doesn’t faze me even though I expect the Cowboys to handily defeat the Cardinals and for Joshua Dobbs ($2,000,000) to have to throw the ball a lot. It’s likely that Ertz will be out if the game gets out of hand and Arizona plays Trey McBride ($1,574,916) more. This might be tricky as Ertz leads the team in targets (18) and receptions (12) so he might do well on volume, not because he’s been great since he’s averaging just 6.4 yards per catch. If he sits out a good part of the second half when the Cardinals are throwing the ball more because they are far behind, then this recommendation to Bench Ertz will look pretty smart. I hope that’s true.
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 3. I can’t believe that we are already heading into Week 3 of the NFL season.
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 2 Roster %
Current Roster %
Change
Josh Reynolds
WR
DET
$3,000,000
60.15%
85.44%
25.29%
Matt Breida
RB
NYG
$1,400,000
68.20%
88.89%
20.69%
Hunter Henry
TE
NE
$12,500,000
24.14%
37.16%
13.02%
Zach Wilson
QB
NYJ
$8,787,670
77.39%
78.93%
1.54%
Kendrick Bourne
WR
NE
$5,000,000
65.52%
68.58%
3.06%
Two players (Zach Wilson and Kendrick Bourne) appeared here last week as well, and both had their roster percentage go up by around 5% in the two Free Agent Auction runs after the Week 2 preview article was published. That’s more than their roster percentage increased this week, so it appears that almost all of the Dynasty Owners interested in Wilson and Bourne have already gone out and got them. Especially Bourne who was picked up in about two-fifths of leagues last week right after appearing in the article.
Neither Josh Reynolds nor Matt Breida will be appearing next week as both easily vaulted over the 80% rostered threshold that Jay uses as his main criteria for inclusion in the article. The fact that Breida is now rostered in nearly 90% of Dynasty Owner leagues shows how much Dynasty Owners value cheap RBs with a chance to play major roles on offense, even for possibly just one week. If you still need a TE, Hunter Henry is still available in a majority of leagues, but you’ll need a significant amount of salary cap room to fit his $12.5 million contract. Happy bidding and hope everyone got who they wanted in the Free Agent Auction.
Match-Up of the Week and Chase for the Ring Leaderboard
Are you missing the Dynasty Owner Match-Up of the Week and Chase for the Ring standings that used to appear here? Then head over and follow me on Twitter/X (@SteveVT33) to see what happened in Week 2. In honor of having two Monday Night Football games this week, we had two Match-ups of the Week. I don’t think I’ll do three of them for Week 3 though.
The updated Chase for the Ring Leaderboard will also be posted on Twitter/X as well even though anyone can access it at https://app.dynastyowner.com/chase-for-the-ring. It’s updated live now so your team name could pop up in the top 100 at any time.
Slightly longer versions of the Match-up of the Week and the Chase for the Ring Leaderboard will also appear on Facebook, Instagram and maybe even on the Dynasty Owner thread on Reddit. Plus, the Chase for the Ring leaderboard Top 10 will appear in a weekly newsletter sent out by Dynasty Owner on Fridays.
Conclusion
It’s typical that I write an article in Week 3 about teams that are 1-1 or have .500 records. It’s unlikely that there are any Dynasty Owner leagues with all 2-0 and 0-2 teams since we only have one NFL division with teams with just those records and they only have four teams per division, not 12 teams like in Dynasty Owner. It wasn’t really a tough or split decision whether to do the article this year because of how many Dynasty Owners are likely in this situation.
If you were trying to decide whether to have some of these players in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup, or even in your lineup in a non-Dynasty Owner league, maybe my analysis and recommendation helped you in making the ultimate Start-Bench (or Start-Sit) decision. While some Dynasty Owners may heed my advice, others might disagree, or not have a better option for their Starting lineup and choose to ignore a Bench recommendation. Other Dynasty Owners may not need Starting lineup help as they have a stud player at a position who isn’t moving to the Bench unless he’s injured or on bye.
If you like, or dislike, these recommendations, think you can do better, or even agree and want everyone to know, please comment when this article is published by Dynasty Owner on Twitter/X, or like the article posted on Facebook or Instagram and add your comment there. We appreciate the feedback from our fellow Dynasty Owners and I’m just happy that you took time to read my content and maybe even comment on it.
The Week 3 Free Agent Auction targets article was published on Tuesday and Jay Pounds will be back every Tuesday during the 2023 season with a list of five (or more) widely available players in Dynasty Owner to help everyone with their Free Agent Auction bids for the first Auction run of the week on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern). We also have the weekly Livestream with me and Dynasty Owner CEO Tim Peffer, which will be live on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 PM (Eastern) this week and likely for the rest of the 2023 season. Our 2022 Chase for the Ring Champion Rudolph Valentine (aka Dynasty|Trade|School) was our special guest last week so if you missed that episode or are reading this after this week’s episode aired, then go watch on the Dynasty Owner YouTube channel.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Steven Van Tassell is the Head of Content for Dynasty Owner
Dynasty Owners! Welcome back to your weekly bargain bin, though one of the guys who made today’s list isn’t exactly cheap. Can you guess who that player is before scrolling down? One hint, Steve Van Tassell is a big fan, despite the fact he likely rosters him in zero Dynasty Owner leagues. Let me know if you guessed correctly on Twitter/X.
Before we jump into this week’s free agents, let’s cover some of the major takeaways after the first two weeks of the season. The biggest surprise for me this season and maybe it’s because I’m a Browns hater living near Cleveland, but man, Deshaun Watson ($46,000,000) has looked extremely average through two weeks. I was willing to give him a pass after the bad weather in Week 1 against the Bengals, but there was no excuse for Week 2. If Watson doesn’t play much better by the start of next season, the Browns are going to look a lot like the Ravens at the end of the Joe Flacco era. Up next, we have the New York Dominators, formerly known as the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys have destroyed both New York football teams thanks to a dominant defense finishing the first two weeks with a combined score of 70-10, though I must give the Giants credit. The Giants started the first game and a half of the 2023 season with their opponents scoring 60 points to the Giants zero points and still found a way to beat the Cardinals and start with a 1-1 record. Impressive in many ways to say the least. Lastly, I would like to touch on what many of us thought would be the worst division in football by a long shot, the NFC South. Yet two weeks through the season, the South has three undefeated teams and is shaping up to be one of the more fun divisions in the entire league. Baker Mayfield ($4,000,000) doesn’t play for the Browns anymore which dominant is allowed to win consecutive games, the Saints have a dominate defense with an offense that has the potential to explode, and the Falcons just keep pounding the ball down people’s throats en route to victories. Will it last, I am not sure, but it is fun to watch!
Hello folks, I will be bringing all of you a free agent article every week this season just as I have done the past few seasons. If you are new to this series of articles, there is a small list of requirements with the main one being the player must be 80% rostered or below in Dynasty Owner. The only other requirement I have is that I would like the player to have a salary of $8,000,000 or less, but I will put a higher salary player on the list if I feel they are worth it. Free Agent Auction bids will process on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern) for this upcoming week, so there’s still time to get your bids in for Week 3. The Bid listed below is my recommended amount to secure the player for your Dynasty Owner team in the Wednesday Free Agent Auction run in a typical Dynasty Owner league.
Alright I think everyone is ready to listen to me about Josh Reynolds now. Ever since the suspension of Jameson Williams ($4,365,448), I have touted Reynolds numerous times in articles and even offered a backup option in Marvin Jones ($3,000,000). The Lions offense was just too good at the end of last season for them to only have one receiver rostered in most Dynasty Owner leagues. Two weeks through the season and this will be no more. In those games, Reynolds has posted an impressive stat line of 9 catches for 146 yards and 2 touchdowns, good enough for a cool 35.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. If the Lions offense continues to hum, Reynolds will be much more than a player who should be 100% rostered, he could be a fringe Starter week in and week out. I am also now a believer that his volume will stick around after Williams returns from suspension. I assure you that this will be your last shot at picking up Josh Reynolds!
Alright this feels gross, and I don’t like it one bit, but with as bad as the running back position is right now these words are really going to be said. Pick up…. Matt Breida. Yuck! Ok now that I have that off my chest, Breida offers solid upside in the passing game and should see enough work in Saquon Barkley’s ($10,091,000) absence to earn a spot on your Bench in Week 3. If we are being realistic Breida will probably be a Starter in a lot of people’s lineups because of how bad the running back position as a whole is right now. I know most teams would virtually abandon the run game after losing Barkley and not having much depth behind him, but the Giants lean heavily on production from the running back position, and I expect them to continue do so regardless of who is in the backfield. Daniel Jones ($40,000,000) throwing the ball 40 times a game doesn’t sound like a winning formula to me.
I think we know who Mac Jones’ ($3,896,588) favorite target is! I know we have only had two weeks of football and I am breaking my own rules here (salary), but Hunter Henry is the number 2 ranked tight end in Dynasty Owner right now and isn’t even 25% rostered. I could be a week too early on this and Henry could fall back to his average ways, but at this point it seems as if Henry is going to be a focal point of the Patriots’ offense all season, especially in the red zone. Through the first two games, Henry has posted an impressive stat line 11 catches for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns en route to 33.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. I know $12,500,000 is a lot of money for a free agent pickup but if Henry can remain in the 10–20-point range each week, which I think he can, he will likely finish as a top 4 tight end. It’s early, but Henry has been impressive thus far. I’m sure Steve will sign off on this message!
I know we just went through this last week and Zach Wilson played horribly. Despite all of that he makes the list again for what will likely be the last time as he should be rostered in too many leagues by next week. I am willing to give Wilson a pass in Week 2 as he was playing what will likely be the best defense he sees all season long in the Dallas Cowboys. I am by no means expecting Wilson to go out and throw for 250 plus yards and multiple touchdowns on a weekly basis, but I can see him getting you 175-200 yards and a touchdown each week as teams load the box to stop the Jets’ running game. If Wilson can figure out how to limit turnovers (it’s a big If, I know), he will be an excellent Practice Squad quarterback for any Dynasty Owner. The biggest draws for me when it comes to Wilson are the facts that he is still on his rookie deal, and it appears that he is locked in as the Jets starter for all of 2023.
Kendrick Bourne probably did not instill a ton of confidence in Dynasty Owners in Week 2, but his target share is what keeps me excited about the future. It seems as if Bourne will be competing with DeVante Parker ($7,625,000) as the Patriots number one receiver and with as spotty as Parker’s injury history is and him already missing a game this season, Bourne is a player I want on my Dynasty Owner roster. Bourne is the perfect bye week/depth player in this format as he is relatively inexpensive and seems primed to be a great boom or bust candidate who has a solid floor. I don’t see Bourne scoring less than 6.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on any given week with the volume he has seen over the first two weeks of the season. Throughout those two weeks, Bourne has a stat line of 10 catches for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns. Good enough for 31.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. If Bourne continues to see an abundance of targets, he is going to put up good numbers this season.
Bid $2,000,000
Thank you all for reading! Be sure to check out all of the upcoming articles from me and Steve plus the Dynasty Owner Livestream every Wednesday afternoon at 4:45 PM (Eastern). Stay safe out there and good luck on your 2023 Chase for the Ring!
The season-ending injuries to J.K. Dobbins ($1,432,359) and Aaron Rodgers ($37,500,000) plus the upsets of the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, plus other leading AFC contenders Buffalo and Cincinnati, overshadowed the fact that there were a lot of close games in Week 1. Eight out of the 16 Week 1 NFL games were decided by one score or less, including the bookend games of the week on Thursday and Monday nights.
While there were several close games, including three games that were separated by just one point, only two ended up having Dynasty Owner clutch scoring events worth a 3.0 point bonus. The first one was the Tua Tagovailoa ($7,568,859) 4 yard TD pass to Tyreek Hill ($30,000,000) with 1:45 to play that gave the Dolphins the 36-34 victory over the Chargers. It was easily topped by Xavier Gipson ($903,333 and now rostered in 2.3% of Dynasty Owner leagues) 65-yard punt return TD in overtime that vaulted the Jets to a 22-16 victory over the Bills on Monday Night Football. It’s highly doubtful that anyone got those 3.0 bonus points from Gipson though.
When you look at player rankings at position by 2023 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, you see a lot of close calls between who should have been in your Starting lineup versus who should have been on your Bench. The widest gap is 1.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points between QB12 Russell Wilson ($48,517,647) who had 20.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 and QB13 Derek Carr ($37,500,000) who had 19.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. There was no gap at kicker as two inexpensive ones, Green Bay kicker Anders Carlson ($999,194) and Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin ($1,130,000), were tied as the #12 kicker with 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points each.
Normally this would be where I’d cite a bunch of close Dynasty Owner games, but unfortunately that can’t happen now. My closest game had a margin of victory of 3.1 points, but in none of my leagues was a Dynasty Owner game decided by less than a point. If you had a closer game that you want highlighted, then send a screenshot of the final score to me on Twitter/X and I’ll retweet it for other Dynasty Owners to see.
Thanks for reading my weekly preview article and for being a Dynasty Owner. If you were a Dynasty Owner last year, thanks for coming back. For any first-time Dynasty Owners, or if it’s just your first time reading my preview article, here’s what to expect. For returning readers, feel free to skip ahead and I’ll shorten this section in future weeks for everyone’s sake.
Every week of the 14-game Dynasty Owner regular season and three game playoffs, I’ll present a player at each position (QB, RB, WR, TE) who you should have as a Starter in your Dynasty Owner lineup. These won’t be the obvious choices. No recommendations to go ahead and start Tyreek Hill. After last week, he’s likely cemented in your Starting lineup unless something bad happens, or the Dolphins are on bye. Other players who are rostered in 100% (or nearly 100%) of Dynasty Owner leagues with low ADPs won’t be mentioned either. Instead, I’m going to recommend you Start players who were drafted to be on your Bench or Practice Squad, aren’t on a roster in every Dynasty Owner league or have high ADPs and could be found in the 12th round or later in a typical Dynasty Owner startup draft.
After that, I’ll name one player per position who should be on your Bench or Practice Squad. For these Bench recommendations, it’s just the opposite. I’ll suggest players drafted early in Dynasty Owner startup drafts to be Starters, projected in the top 12 (QBs and TEs) or top 36 (RBs and WRs) in scoring this year. This section is where you might see some surprising players appear. However, the recommended Bench players shouldn’t be in your Starting lineup for the week based on matchups, past performance against a team or something else.
All stats cited are based on the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system as outlined in the Dynasty Owner Constitution. Standard Dynasty Owner scoring gives you .1 points for every yard rushing or receiving, .1 point for every 2 yards passing, 1 point per reception, 6 points for a rushing, receiving or passing touchdown and 2 points for a successful 2-point conversion (rushing, receiving, or passing). Interceptions or fumbles lost cost you 3 points, while a fumble that is recovered by the player’s team is a loss of only 1 point. Bonus points are available for 100-199 yards rushing (2 points), 200 yards rushing or receiving (6 points), 300-399 yards passing (1 point) and 400 yards passing (4 points). There is also a 3 point bonus for clutch scoring, which is a score that results in a lead change in the final two minutes of the 4th quarter or overtime. Kickoff and punt return touchdowns are worth 6 points for the player and kickoff and punt returns are worth 1 point for every 40 yards.
Any salaries, ADPs and roster percentages listed were current as of the morning of September 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 Week 2, let’s take a quick look at Week 1 and announce our first Dynasty Owner Player of the Week for 2023. The winner this week is someone who surprisingly didn’t win the award at all in 2022, but has won it twice before in his career. Our winner this week is: Tyreek Hill
Unlike half of the NFL games this week, this was not a close call at all. Tyreek Hill ($30,000,000) had 53.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (11 receptions, 215 receiving yards, 2 TDs). He got 9.0 bonus points, 3.0 points for his clutch 4-yard TD reception with less than two minutes to go and another 6.0 points for getting more than 200 receiving yards. The next closest player was his QB Tua Tagovailoa who had 41.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points.
It’s not Hill’s best Dynasty Owner game either. That came in Week 12 of the 2020 season when he had even more receptions (13), receiving yards (269) and TDs (3) than he did this week for a total of 63.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. That’s still the all-time record for most Dynasty Owner fantasy points in a single game. The only thing missing was a clutch score that week.
Week 1 Points: 53.5
2023 Salary: $30,000,000
Cost per Point: $560,748
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. The first Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week for the 2023 season is also a first time winner of this award. The winner is: Rashid Shaheed
This was a closer call than the Player of the Week award and Rashid Shaheed ($750,000) didn’t even have the most Dynasty Owner fantasy points for a player with a salary of under $1 million. Both Tyler Allgeier ($998,474) and Brock Purdy ($934,252) had more with 24.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and 21.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points respectively. However, Shaheed’s minimum salary of just $750,000 combined with his production gave him a slightly lower Cost per Point than both Allgeier and Purdy. Shaheed had his career high in Dynasty Owner fantasy points in a single game and first game with more than 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Despite having more Dynasty Owner fantasy points, Allgeier finished second in the Value of the Week calculations behind Rashid Shaheed and has still yet to win this award. Rashid Shaheed was the winner and congratulations to him and his Dynasty Owners!
Week 1 Points: 20.9
2023 Salary: $750,000
Cost per Point: $35,885
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Before we get into the weekly recommendations, I’ll always take a look at how my recommendations from the previous week fared (Good, Bad or Just Ok) and give a short recap. To remind everyone, I predicted performances worthy of being in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup for these four players in Week 1. Here’s how each recommendation did:
WR: Curtis Samuel ($11,500,000) – 11.0 (Just Ok recommendation)
TE: Tyler Higbee ($7,250,000) – 7.9 (Just Ok recommendation)
All of these were pretty close calls. Nobody was a clear top-end player in your Starting lineup, but there weren’t any Bad recommendations either. Tyler Higbee only put up 7.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions for 49 receiving yards), but I avoided the Isaiah Likely ($1,041,085) disaster that a lot of analysts and Dynasty Owners didn’t. Higbee wasn’t great and tied with Kylen Granson ($1,046,592) as TE14, but was only 0.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points out of the TE12 spot. In contrast, Likely was only targeted once and scored 1.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception for 4 receiving yards) in place of an injured Mark Andrews ($14,000,000). Hopefully you didn’t use Likely instead of Higbee.
Curtis Samuel scored only 11.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 54 receiving yards, 6 rushing yards), but he was just slightly worse than a low-end FLEX Starter as WR38 so that recommendation was Just Ok. Baker Mayfield was the QB10 in Dynasty Owner with 21.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (173 passing yards, 11 rushing yards, 2 TDs). Zero turnovers for Mayfield and only one sack. The last statistic doesn’t matter, but I’m pointing it out to show that he played pretty well in his Tampa debut. Raheem Mostert was the overall RB18, so a mid-range RB2 for the first week, with 13.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (37 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 13 receiving yards, 1 TD), even though he received less touches than I predicted. I had also recommended Gus Edwards ($4,500,000) for people who didn’t think Mostert was a true Bench player and while Edwards only had 5.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (32 rushing yards, 1 2-pt conversion), he’s likely the lead RB in Baltimore after the devastating Achilles tear suffered by J.K. Dobbins.
A good start for the 2023 Starting lineup recommendations. I’ll take it and hope to improve with these Week 2 recommendations.
Mac Jones (QB – NE): Sound the Homer Alert! Steve’s picking Mac Jones ($3,896,588)! I’ll accept that criticism, but respond that Jones quietly was the third highest scoring player in Dynasty Owner in Week 1 with 33.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (316 passing yards, 15 rushing yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT). He was the second best QB last week and the fourth best QB was Justin Herbert ($6,644,689) who had 25.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (228 passing yards, 18 rushing yards, 2 TDs). Herbert played the Dolphins last week and Jones plays them this week.
Jones qualifies as someone who is likely on your Dynasty Owner Bench as he was the 17th QB drafted on average in 2023 Dynasty Owner startup drafts (ADP 98.2) despite his low salary. He has also finished as QB22 and QB18 in his two previous seasons.
However, he finally has a real offensive coordinator this season. Hello Bill O’Brien and goodbye Matt Patricia! I’ve always liked Mac and felt that he got a bad rap last year with Patricia guiding the Patriots offense. He was arguably the best QB from the 2021 NFL Draft class in his rookie season and hopefully is back on track in 2023. He’s not going to stay as the third highest scoring player in Dynasty Owner, but will have enough Dynasty Owner fantasy points this week to justify being in your Starting lineup.
Jamaal Williams (RB – NO): Seeing Jamaal Williams’ ($4,000,000) name here might be a surprise to some Dynasty Owners because he was RB13 in 2022. However, that was last year with the Lions, and this is 2023 with the Saints. He was surprisingly the 38th RB drafted on average in Dynasty Owner startup drafts this season with an ADP of 109.5, barely in front of his teammate Alvin Kamara ($15,000,000) who had an ADP of 110.6. Kamara finished five spots behind him among RBs in 2022 and is suspended for the first three games of the season.
Williams didn’t do a lot in Week 1 with just 6.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (45 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 7 receiving yards, 1 fumble), but he did play over three-quarters (75.4%) of the snaps for the Saints at RB. Tony Jones ($940,000) played seven snaps compared to 49 for Williams. No other RBs played for the Saints in Week 1 though rookie Kendre Miller ($1,413,580) could make his NFL debut after missing the first week with a hamstring injury.
Even if Miller plays, I expect Willaims to be worth starting on Monday night against the Panthers’ defense that allowed the Falcons to rush for 130 yards on 26 carries (5.0 yards per carry). Tyler Allgeier ($998,474) had 75 rushing yards and 2 TDs, while rookie Bijan Robinson ($5,489,634) had 56 rushing yards and a TD. They combined for 44.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1, so I’m comfortable that there’s enough fantasy production for both Williams and Miller.
Nico Collins (WR – HOU): Here’s a player who was very hyped up for a while, then faded behind his teammate Tank Dell ($1,244,382) for attention during the pre-season. I had Dell as a pre-season Hero in an earlier article, so I can’t blame everyone else on this one. However, Nico Collins ($1,217,879) was the Texans’ leader in almost every receiving category in Week 1 as he scored 14.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions for 80 receiving yards) on 11 targets. Dell had a respectable outing with 6.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 34 receiving yards, 14 return yards) on just four targets.
The Texans play against the Colts in Week 2 and the Colts defense gave up 14 receptions for 165 receiving yards and 2 TDs to Jaguars WRs in Week 1. Collins might not be Calvin Ridley ($11,116,000) who led the Jaguars with 23.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (8 receptions, 101 receiving yards, 1 TD, 1 fumble), but at 6 feet, 4 inches tall and 215 pounds, he is bigger than every single Colts cornerback. That should give him an advantage that he can exploit if Texans rookie QB C.J. Stroud ($9,069,811) can get him the ball. Stroud did a pretty good job of that against the Ravens in Week 1.
Collins finished Week 1 as WR24, so he was a low-end WR2 for your Dynasty Owner team. He was drafted as a WR5 though as the 63rd WR taken on average in Dynasty Owner startup drafts. His ADP of 168.0 this year was better than last year’s ADP (199.2) and similar to 2020 (ADP 166.6), so nobody has really drafted Collins with the idea of putting him into their Starting lineup right away. However, I’m here to tell you to do just that and Start Nico Collins this week.
Adam Trautman (TE – DEN): Most football fans, fantasy football players and Dynasty Owners expected the Broncos’ starting TE this season to be Greg Dulcich ($1,314,785), not Adam Trautman ($1,124,851). If you look at any Dynasty Owner metric, you’ll see that Dynasty Owners preferred Dulcich even though he has a slightly higher salary.
Player
Roster %
ADP
2022 Rank
2022 DOFP
2022 DOFP per game
Greg Dulcich
98.08%
123.5
TE29
86.1
8.61
Adam Trautman
74.33%
262.3
TE50
41.9
2.99
However, none of us are Broncos coach Sean Payton and so in Week 1, Trautman was on the field for more snaps than Dulcich (46 to 21) and had more targets (5 to 2). Most importantly for Dynasty Owners, Trautman had twice as many Dynasty Owner fantasy points with 8.4 (5 receptions for 34 receiving yards) than Dulcich did with 4.2 (2 receptions for 22 receiving yards). And now, Dulcich is expected to miss several weeks with a hamstring injury.
By now, I probably don’t need to mention that the Broncos’ Week 2 opponent are the Washington Commanders who allowed the Cardinals’ TE duo of Zach Ertz ($10,550,000) and Trey McBride ($1,574,916) to score a combined 12.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (8 receptions for 44 receiving yards) on 12 targets. I’m expecting Trautman to have a second straight week as a low-end Starting TE as he finished as TE10 in Week 1. Get Trautman into your Starting lineup if you have him on your Dynasty Owner roster.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
Now it’s the time to look at how my Bench recommendations from Week 1 worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok). My Bench recommendations have been better than my Starting lineup recommendations every year so far. If they are better now, then I had a really good week. Here’s how each of my Week 1 recommendations did:
QB: Joe Burrow ($9,047,534) – 4.0 (Good recommendation)
WR: Gabriel Davis ($998,595) – 5.2 (Good recommendation)
TE: Darren Waller ($17,000,000) – 6.6 (Good recommendation)
A perfect week! All four of my Week 1 Bench recommendations were Good. The “best of the best” had to be recommending that Dynasty Owners Bench Joe Burrow. It was hard to do, and I didn’t even follow my own advice in two Dynasty Owner leagues as I thought Burrow would do better than my Bench QB, but the recommendation was spot on as he finished as QB29 for the week with just 4.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (82 passing yards, -1 rushing yard). Dynasty Owners would have been better off leaving both Najee Harris and Gabriel Davis on their Bench too as neither did much. Harris had just 5.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (31 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 2 receiving yards), while Davis was 0.1 points worse with just 5.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions for 32 receiving yards) on just four targets. Finally, even though Darren Waller had only 1.3 fewer Dynasty Owner fantasy points than Tyler Higbee, it was only good enough to put Waller into a tie for TE18 with 6.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions for 36 receiving yards). He was closer to being TE25 than TE12 for the week.
A great start for the 2023 Bench recommendations that I’m going to try and replicate with these Week 2 recommendations.
Tua Tagovailoa (QB – MIA): Patriots Bias Alert #2 for this article! Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins face off against the Patriots in Week 2. That’s the Patriots defense that held Eagles QB Jalen Hurts ($1,506,293) to just 15.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (170 passing yards, 37 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 lost fumble) in Week 1. At least in my mind, Hurts is better than Tua.
Yes, I’m aware that Tua is the #1 QB in Dynasty Owner now and had 41.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (466 passing yards, 5 rushing yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 2 fumbles – 1 lost), but let’s pump the brakes on that performance. It was against a middle-of-the-road Chargers defense last season that didn’t improve much during the off-season.
You might be asking how Tua does against New England and I’m happy that you asked. We can look at how he’s performed in early season games against the Patriots as the Dolphins and Patriots have matched up in either Week 1 or Week 2 every season since 2019. I think the NFL schedule makers need to get more creative, don’t you? Tua played in both the Patriots-Dolphins Week 1 match-ups in each of the past two seasons and been average at best with 19.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 2021 and 18.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 2022. Both of those performances would have put him outside of the top 12 QBs in Dynasty Owner last week (and most weeks). I think those are more than enough reasons to keep Tua on your Dynasty Owner Bench in Week 2 despite his great performance in Week 1.
D’Andre Swift (RB – PHI): Since this preview is now coming out on Thursday, I have the ability to pick players on Thursday Night Football. I’m going to take advantage of that ability for the first time by telling everyone to put D’Andre Swift ($2,134,729) on their Dynasty Owner Bench.
There are several reasons for this recommendation. First, Swift only played 19 snaps on offense in Week 1 against New England compared to 41 snaps for Kenneth Gainwell ($953,882). Gainwell has a rib injury and has been declared out this week, which would seem to be good news for Swift getting more playing time. That brings me to my second point. Just because Swift gets more playing time, it doesn’t mean that he’s going to have running room against the Minnesota defense. The Vikings held Buccaneers RBs to just 62 rushing yards on 24 carries (2.6 yards per carry) and 4 receptions for 19 receiving yards. That’s just 12.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points for all RBs. Which flows into my third point. The Eagles will likely utilize even more of the dreaded Running Back by Committee (RBBC) with Gainwell out so Swift isn’t guaranteed to get all of the RB carries and receptions. Boston Scott ($2,000,000) might get some and Rashaad Penny ($1,350,000) is still around, even though he was a healthy scratch in Week 1. Penny always has at least one good game before he gets hurts. Maybe it’ll be on Thursday night.
Pick your favorite reason as the one you use to justify putting Swift on your Dynasty Owner Bench. I know that lots of people drafted him highly in Dynasty Owner over the years (ADP of 58.0 in 2023, 11.9 in 2022, 26.3 in 2021 and 27.7 in 2020) so they really, really, really want to take the opportunity to put him in their Starting lineup. Go ahead and do so, but I wouldn’t do it if I had Swift on any of my Dynasty Owner rosters.
Garrett Wilson (WR – NYJ): I’m putting more stock in the nine games that Garrett Wilson played in last season started by Zach Wilson ($8,787,670) and didn’t catch a TD than the fact that he caught a TD pass from him in Week 1. In case you didn’t see the catch, here’s a video of it. Incredible catch and the fact that he was able to make it despite the terrible throw and good coverage gave Garrett Wilson 14.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 34 receiving yards, 1 TD) instead of just 7.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 31 receiving yards) without the 3-yard TD reception.
It won’t get any easier for Wilson this week against the Dallas secondary. They allowed Giants’ WRs to catch only five passes for 41 receiving yards on 14 targets in Week 1. Wilson is better than all of the Giants’ WRs, but that’s still pretty impressive. Trevon Diggs and Stephon Gilmore are a pair of stud cornerbacks who will make life difficult for the Wilsons in Week 2.
It’s pretty much as simple as that. It’s probably difficult to Bench the guy who you drafted in the first round of Dynasty Owner startup drafts this year (ADP 9.1), but that was with the expectation that Wilson would be having Aaron Rodgers throwing him passes. He’s not and Dynasty Owners should leave Garrett Wilson on their Bench.
Pat Freiermuth (TE – PIT): With how well the Browns’ defense played in Week 1 against the Bengals, this shouldn’t be a surprising choice. Pat Freiermuth ($1,507,045) is a step below the top tier TEs in the NFL and fantasy football and while he’s definitely a pretty regular weekly Dynasty Owner Starting lineup TE, it’s just not looking like a good week for him. He had a productive Week 1 against the 49ers with 7.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, but if you don’t have him on your roster, you may not realize that he only had a 3-yard TE reception. Those of you with Freiermuth likely knew this, whereas I did not recall until doing my research this week.
The Browns limited the Bengals’ offense to only 82 yards passing in Week 1. Admittedly, it was in wet conditions, but it was still a dominant defensive performance. While Freiermuth could see more targets with Diontae Johnson ($18,355,000) out of action, he was targeted only four times in Week 1. The Steelers played a good defense (49ers) in Week 1, and they’ve got another one in Week 2, so I’d temper my expectations for Freiermuth and the rest of the Steelers’ offense. Bench Freiermuth if you have a better option who could score a TD this week.
Free Agent Auction Targets Update
As a new feature, I’m going to recap the players recommended in the weekly Free Agent Auction targets article by Jay Pounds and see how much their Dynasty Owner roster percentage has increased since the start of Week 2. 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 1 Roster %
Current Roster %
Change
Tutu Atwell
WR
LAR
$1,477,175
64.37%
91.57%
27.20%
Zach Wilson
QB
NYJ
$8,787,670
36.02%
72.03%
36.01%
Kendrick Bourne
WR
NE
$5,000,000
21.84%
60.92%
39.08%
Melvin Gordon
RB
BAL
$1,165,000
23.75%
34.10%
10.35%
Kylen Granson
TE
IND
$1,046,592
45.21%
52.87%
7.66%
A quick analysis shows that Tutu Atwell won’t be in next week’s article as his roster percentage is now well over 75%. He didn’t have the biggest increase as that was surprisingly Kendrick Bourne who nearly tripled his roster percentage and was picked up in about two-fifths of all leagues. He is still available in about two-fifths if you still want him on your roster. Finally, not a lot of Dynasty Owner decided to go out and get either Melvin Gordon or Kylen Granson as they experienced the lowest increases. However, if they play well this week, you might see them appear again and have a second chance. Happy bidding and hope everyone gets who they want in the Free Agent Auction.
Match-Up of the Week and Chase for the Ring Leaderboard
Are you missing the Dynasty Owner Match-Up of the Week and Chase for the Ring standings that used to appear here? Then head over and follow me on Twitter/X (@SteveVT33) to see what happened in Week 1 with our defending Champion Dynasty|Trade|School. Was he able to overcome the Curse of the Defending Champion and be the first Champion to win their Week 1 match-up in the following season?
We had two Dynasty Owners send along a Week 2 match-up, so both will appear this week. Thanks to The Black Pearl and King of Kings!
The updated Chase for the Ring Leaderboard will also be posted on Twitter/X as well even though anyone can access it at https://app.dynastyowner.com/chase-for-the-ring. It’s updated live now so your team name could pop up in the top 100 at any time.
The plan is to start posting both Match-up of the Week and the Chase for the Ring Leaderboard on Facebook, Instagram and maybe even Reddit. Plus, the Chase for the Ring leaderboard will appear in a weekly newsletter sent out by Dynasty Owner on Fridays.
Conclusion
How many close calls do you think we’ll have in the NFL this week? It was eight last week, but the point spreads on Thursday morning only have three games with a spread greater than 8.0 points. My guess is that it’ll be more than three but less than eight.
I’m sure that there will be plenty of close Dynasty Owner games this week and even a few that are settled by less than a point. Some of those will be determined by Bench scoring, which is why setting the appropriate Starting lineup and Bench, while leaving those guys who aren’t going to do much at all on your Practice Squad, is so important in Dynasty Owner.
Please read this weekly preview article each and every week to see my recommendations for who should be in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and who should be on your Bench. If you have one of the players mentioned, hopefully it will assist you with your lineup decisions. While some Dynasty Owners may heed my advice, others might disagree, or not have a better option for their Starting lineup and choose to ignore a Bench recommendation. Other Dynasty Owners may not need Starting lineup help as they have a stud player at a position who isn’t moving to the Bench unless he’s injured or on bye.
If you like, or dislike, these recommendations, think you can do better, or even agree and want everyone to know, please comment when this article is published by Dynasty Owner on Twitter/X, or like the article posted on Facebook or Instagram and add your comment there. We appreciate the feedback from our fellow Dynasty Owners.
The Week 2 Free Agent Auction targets article was published on Tuesday and Jay Pounds will be back every Tuesday during the 2023 season with a list of five (or more) widely available players in Dynasty Owner to help everyone with their Free Agent Auction bids for the first Auction run of the week on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern). We also have the weekly Livestream with me and Dynasty Owner CEO Tim Peffer, which will be live on Wednesday afternoons at 4:45 PM (Eastern) for the entire 2023 season. Our 2022 Chase for the Ring Champion Rudolph Valentine (aka Dynasty|Trade|School) was our special guest this week so if you missed it, then go watch on the Dynasty Owner YouTube channel. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Steven Van Tassell is the Head of Content for Dynasty Owner
Dynasty Owners, football is back! I am typically one who overreacts to Week 1 football but it’s hard not to do after seeing real game action for the first time since the Super Bowl. Are you a Week 1 overreactor, or do you stay cool, calm, and collected until a few weeks have passed? Let me know on X (formerly known as Twitter) what side you fall under. While were waiting on you to @ me, let’s cover the crazy Week 1 that just happened.
Injuries! Injuries were a huge part of Week 1 after not seeing many during the off-season. It’s football, injuries are always going to happen, but watching Aaron Rodgers ($37,500,000) go down to a season ending injury just four snaps into the season felt like some sort of cruel joke that made me not even want to watch the game. All the excitement of Rodgers to the Jets was over before it even began. While injuries were a huge part of Week 1, my biggest takeaway was the horrible starting quarterback play we witnessed to start the season. After seeing so many big-name starters have rough outings, I am now advocating that we see more starters play in the pre-season, so we don’t have to feel as if we are watching pre-season football in Week 1. Heck, it really looked like the Tampa version of Jameis Winston ($4,000,000) was out there starting for every team as most were scoring a bunch of points, while also throwing a bunch of interceptions. I don’t know what the weekly average is in the NFL for interceptions thrown, but I would be willing to bet my savings that’s it’s a lot less than the 25 we saw to start the season. I know I am not talking like a man with much hope, but I assure you there are still some diamonds in the rough to be had!
Hello folks, I will be bringing all of you a free agent article every week this season just as I have done the past few seasons. If you are new to this series of articles there is a small list of requirements with the main one being the player must be 75% rostered or below in Dynasty Owner. The only other requirement I have is that I would like the player to have a salary of $8,000,000 or less, but I will put a higher salary player on the list if I feel they are worth it. Free Agent Auction bids will process on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern) for this upcoming week, so there’s still time to get your bids in for Week 2. The Bid listed below is my recommended amount to secure the player for your Dynasty Owner team in the Wednesday Free Agent Auction run in a typical Dynasty Owner league.
Did anyone see this coming? I know I sure didn’t. Tutu Atwell was a second round draft pick that many of us expected the Rams to use quite a bit, but it just never happened for the Louisville product. Cue the start of the youngster’s third NFL season with superstar teammate Cooper Kupp ($26,700,000) getting placed on IR and Van Jefferson ($1,402,784) failing to take a step forward, it ended up being the perfect storm for Atwell to shine. Atwell seized the moment and produced a stat line of 6 catches for 119 yards (17.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). Atwell will take a step back whenever Kupp returns but for now it seems as if the passing game is going to run through Atwell and rookie Puka Nacua ($1,021,244). Nacua had an excellent debut, but rookies are almost always up and down in terms of fantasy production which leads me to believe Atwell is the player you want in the Rams offense until Kupp is back. Nacua is also rostered in 98.47% of Dynasty Owner leagues, so few Dynasty Owners can get him in the Free Agent Auction anyways. Matthew Stafford ($40,000,000) seemed to be healthy and if that is the case you will definitely want pieces of this Rams offense on your Dynasty Owner roster, especially cheap ones.
Alright let me be clear, I am no Aaron Rodgers fan but the injury he suffered last night sucked and was bad for football fans in general. As I mentioned above, this Jets team had so much excitement surrounding them, and it was gone after just four snaps. Yes, they won and the man this section is about was a part of that, but the Super Bowl hopes this team had are now Wild Card hopes. Now to what we are here for, a cheap quarterback in Dynasty Owner. Top 10 draft pick quarterbacks that are going to start basically the entire season on rookie deals almost never come available on the Free Agent Auction, but today that scenario has happened. Zach Wilson didn’t look like a top 10 quarterback by any means, but he will get you points as a Bench option, or he can be quality depth for your roster. Either way, this is a player almost everyone should be bidding on.
Alright this one feels like Déjà Vu! It seems like every season the Patriots have an offensive coordinator; I end up putting Kendrick Bourne on this list. Bourne has been and still is a very underrated player and could easily end up as the number 1 receiver in this offense when all is said and done. In Week 1, Bourne posted a stat line of 6 catches for 64 yards and 2 touchdowns (24.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) with a team high 11 targets, four more than any other Patriot. I am not a huge Mac Jones ($3,896,588) believer, but he did play very well and should only get better as the season goes and he gets more familiar with coach Bill O’Brien’s offense. The good part about targeting Bourne is the fact he is a little more expensive than the average Dynasty Owner can afford so, you shouldn’t have a ton of competition bidding against you.
I am certain this take will be met with debate, but I feel I will be on the right side of things by the end of Week 2 with Gordon leading the Ravens’ running backs in carries. Gordon’s teammate J.K. Dobbins ($1,432,359) suffered another season ending injury this past week and the Ravens are now left with question marks at the running back position once again. Gus Edwards ($4,500,000) is a candidate to lead the way, but he did not see a huge role after Dobbins went down and finished tied with Justice Hill ($2,255,000) as each got 8 carries. Heading into Week 2, Gordon will be the most experienced back on the Ravens roster while also being the best pass catcher/blocker. If I am right and Gordon sees a significant role in this offense, he could easily end up as a top 24 running back this season. Picking up Gordon is definitely a gamble, but with such a low salary it’s one I am more than willing to take.
In all honesty, I did not love any of the most available tight ends in Week 1, but someone has to make this list. Right? The tight end position has become such a wasteland that I am stuck between recommending Adam Trautman ($1,124,851) once again or the player I chose, Kylen Granson. Neither player scored a touchdown nor finished the week with double digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points (8.4 for Trautman and 7.9 for Granson), but that pretty much sums up the tight end position in 2023. I ended up going with Granson here simply because I think we all know what Adam Trautman is at this point in his career whereas Granson is still very young and might finally be getting his chance. Another factor working in Granson’s favor is the fact that he could end up as the Colts number 2 receiving option this season behind teammate Michael Pittman ($2,153,213). If this is the case and rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson ($8,498,508) improves on his Week 1 start, Granson could sneak into the top 12 tight ends this season.
Bid – $2,000,000
Thank you all for reading! Be sure to check out all of the upcoming article from me and Steve plus the Dynasty Owner Livestream every Wednesday afternoon. Stay safe out there and good luck on your 2023 Chase for the Ring!
Hello Dynasty Owners, and thank you for joining me in another Trade Time article. The official start of the 2023 NFL season was last night, and we are just days away from the first full Sunday slate of games. I’m happy for NFL games to be starting and writing about one of the most unique aspects of Dynasty Owner…The Trade Calculator.
“The Trade Calculator is something that I have heard numerous requests for from Dynasty Owners, and it has arrived just in time for the NFL pre-season. A trade calculator in itself is not a new invention, but when it comes to Dynasty Owner, it takes on a whole new meaning. As we know, all of our projections here take into account several factors…
Age
Fantasy Production
Projected Length of Career
Salary
All of these are standard for dynasty leagues except for salary. Taking into account a player’s salary takes on a bigger meaning when you are considering trading away one of your Dynasty Owner assets (player, draft picks, Dynasty Dollars or an Amnesty Provision).”
(Published on August 17, 2023)
Here is some more detailed information about the Trade Calculator from my second article.
“…the Trade Calculator is continuously updated. It takes info and data from several different websites and compiles it into one place. As a player’s stats and team conditions change, so will the player’s value. It might be difficult to see value fluctuations in the off-season, but things will ramp up once players start producing actual Dynasty Owner fantasy points. As I said last week, this Trade Calculator also takes contracts and salaries into account. Real-life NFL contracts and salaries are the most unique aspect of Dynasty Owner, and it is one of the biggest reasons that established dynasty fantasy football players are drawn to the platform. The Trade Calculator takes contract years left and salary into account when it analyzes each trade.”
(Published on August 23, 2023)
Today I am going to present you with two more potential trades that I have run through the Trade Calculator. Both of these trades involve one NFL rookie from this year, and they should be used as a guide to find fair value with a trade partner.
Rookie Value Trades
Jaxon Smith-Njigba ($3,604,327)
Player
Position
Salary
Years Left on Contract
Age
Value
Team A
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
WR
$3,604,327
4
21
5914
2024 2nd Round
–
–
–
–
2250
8,164
Team B
Garrett Wilson
WR
$5,138,502
3
23
7747
7,747
Results
5% In Favor Of Team A
This is a very simple, yet effective way of showing how the Trade Calculator sees value. On one side. you have a rookie wide receiver in Jaxon Smith-Njigba (JSN) who is the top of his class. He has been compared to elite wide receivers such as Keenan Allen ($20,025,000) and Jarvis Landry ($3,000,000). There is little doubt that JSN will be a producer in the NFL, but will he be a fantasy producer in the way that Garrett Wilson has already shown that he can be?
Wilson finished his rookie season as the WR19 with over 1,100 yards, four touchdowns and 216.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Barring injury, I see no scenario where he doesn’t easily surpass those numbers. This belief mostly stems from the fact that he is now receiving passes from one of the greatest ball throwers in NFL history in Aaron Rodgers ($37,500,000).
So, the simple question remains…would you rather have JSN and a 2024 2nd round pick or Garrett Wilson? My answer is Wilson. I will take the better receiver with the better quarterback who is projected to score more fantasy points over the next three years. Yes, you are receiving a little over 1.5 million dollar discount with JSN, but the fantasy production should make up for that lost salary cap.
Bijan Robinson ($5,489,634)
Player
Position
Salary
Years Left on Contract
Age
Value
Team A
Bijan Robinson
RB
$5,489,634
21
4
8058
Elijah Mitchell
RB
$915,892
25
2
2139
10,197
Team B
Justin Jefferson
WR
$3,280,701
24
1
9996
9,996
Results
2% In Favor Of Team A
This trade is the one that has been the hardest for me to decide on, and I’m not totally convinced that I know which side I want. Team A involves a high level handcuff running back in Elijah Mitchell. He is the backup to the best running back in the league, Christian McCaffrey ($16,015,875). It also includes the consensus 1.01 rookie pick in this year’s rookie drafts (Bijan Robinson). If you just saw this side of the trade, you may be thinking, “I’m not sure there is anything that could cause me to give up Bijan.” That may be true for a lot of you, but take a look at what the Trade Calculator says about fair value with this trade…
Team B is giving up only Justin Jefferson and it is still very close compensation for Robinson and Mitchell. There are a few reasons why I am having such a hard time finding a side in this trade.
Bijan has yet to play a regular season NFL snap. Yes, I think almost everyone who has seen any amount of tape on Robinson knows that he is super talented, and his skillset is almost guaranteed to translate to the NFL. We think that is almost certainly true, but we don’t know for sure. We can’t be 100% sure until we see it for a few months.
Justin Jefferson is on an expiring rookie deal, and he has been given a fifth year rookie option. This means that while he won’t be making $30,000,000 per year yet, his salary will be increasing dramatically. His fifth year option salary is 19.743 million dollars, which is the minimum he will earn in 2024. While Jefferson will of course be 100 percent owned rostered, it does drop his value significantly.
It just feels dirty to give up the 1.01 in a very recent rookie draft for an older and soon to be more expensive wide receiver.
Conclusion
I think which side you land on with this trade will come down to roster construction. Obviously, any Dynasty Owner would rather keep Jefferson while also acquiring Bijan, but that isn’t going to be the reality in most situations.
For what it’s worth, I would slightly take the Bijan side just because I believe the upside of having a rookie RB as hyped as Bijan is close to the most valuable thing you can have in Dynasty Owner. I see very little chance that he loses value going into next season. Running backs are just so scarce and hard to come by in dynasty football.
As always, thank you for reading. If anyone has any suggestions on real trades that were either accepted or rejected that they would like me to analyze, please let me know. I would appreciate it if you followed @Dynasty_Owner on X/Twitter as well as subscribed to Dynasty Owner on YouTube. Thank you all. Take care and be safe.
As the title says, here we go! It’s time for the 2023 NFL and Dynasty Owner seasons to begin. It’s been a hot summer, and while it’s still in the mid-90s here in the Washington, DC area, things are projected to cool down by Sunday. What’s really been heating up over the past few days are fantasy football drafts (I had four over the past three days). If you still want to do a Dynasty Owner startup draft, it’s not too late. There are startup drafts on Friday and Saturday, and you just go to your D.O. Store, click on New Team for 2023, and find a time when you can draft in the future. You can also Create A League for a specific day and time, invite friends who you want to play with, or just make it a public league. If any of those friends are new to Dynasty Owner, give them your affiliate code and get a $49 referral fee. Don’t forget to give everyone the most recent promo code (LETSGO) for $20 off a new team and use the code yourself as well.
It’s also been a busy past couple of days in the NFL, even though the three game pre-season ended on August 27th. There were over 1,000 players cut from NFL rosters since last Tuesday’s 53-man roster cutdown day, and nearly 600 were rehired to team practice squads.
Your Dynasty Owner roster may have experienced some turnover as players you expected to start or at least play a significant amount this season have gotten hurt like Travis Kelce ($14,312,500), or put on Injured Reserve (IR) for at least the first four games of the season, like Jeff Wilson ($3,000,000), released but then added back to the practice squad, such as what happened to Bailey Zappe ($1,076,768), or even gotten released outright by their team. Sayonara Cade York ($1,097,410)!
That whole end of the previous paragraph was just the setup for the Cade York line. Don’t worry if you have him on your Dynasty Owner roster (he’s still rostered in 55.98% of Dynasty Owner leagues now), as he’s resurfaced with the Titans practice squad. In fact, quite a lot of players who got let go over the past week are still on a lot of Dynasty Owner rosters. Our rosters can be up to 30 players plus 3 players on IR so there’s room to stash even Trey Lance ($8,526,319) who is still rostered in an unfathomable 89.96% of Dynasty Owner leagues. Hope springs eternal for everyone in early September as every NFL team is still undefeated and all fantasy football players should think their teams have a shot at winning their league. For Dynasty Owners, I hope that everyone is thinking about how they can be the 2023 Chase for the Ring Champion and join Eddie Driscoll – New York’s Strongest, Viktor Kilgore – Barbee Kilgore, Jeff Rachlin – SKOL Vikings and Rudolph Valentine – Dynasty|Trade|School (D|T|S) in that exclusive club.
The Dynasty Owner Chase for the Ring is still the best contest and prize in fantasy football. If your Dynasty Owner team wins its league and scores the most points of any league winner over the course of the entire season, you’re the winner. You get a Super Bowl-style ring and the title of “best of the best” in Dynasty Owner for the 2023 season. You have to win your league to win the Ring so that’s where this Week 1 preview and my Starting lineup and Bench recommendations come into play.
However, before we get to those recommendations, let’s remind everyone that Dynasty Owner still use real NFL salaries and contracts and our 2023 Dynasty Owner salary cap is still 70% of the NFL salary cap, or $157.36 million. Dynasty Owner has some unique scoring rules that everyone should be refreshed on, like Bench scoring that adds 25% of the points from players on your Bench to your total final score and a Clutch scoring bonus of 3 points for any TD or FG that results in a lead change (score is tied or takes the lead) in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter or anytime during overtime. The regular scoring rules are recapped below and also included in full in the Dynasty Owner Constitution. As Brad Hamilton said in Fast Times at Ridgemont High – Learn It. Know It. Live It.
Thanks for reading my weekly preview article and for being a Dynasty Owner. If you were a Dynasty Owner last year, thanks for coming back this year. For those of you first-time Dynasty Owners, or if it’s just your first time reading my preview article, here’s what to expect.
Every week of the 14-game Dynasty Owner regular season and three game playoffs, I’ll present a player at each position (QB, RB, WR, TE) who you should have as a Starter in your Dynasty Owner lineup. These won’t be the obvious choices. No recommendations to go ahead and start Davante Adams, ($28,000,000), Josh Allen ($43,005,667), or Mark Andrews ($14,000,000). Those guys are just the ones who’s last names start with an “A”. They are likely cemented in your Starting lineup unless something bad happens, or they are on bye. Other players who are rostered in 100% (or nearly 100%) of Dynasty Owner leagues with low ADPs won’t be mentioned either. Instead, I’m going to recommend you Start players who were drafted to be on your Bench or Practice Squad, aren’t on a roster in every Dynasty Owner league or have high ADPs and could be found in the 12th round or later in a typical Dynasty Owner startup draft.
After that, I’ll name one player per position who should be on your Bench or Practice Squad. For these Bench recommendations, it’s just the opposite. I’ll suggest players drafted early in Dynasty Owner startup drafts to be Starters, projected in the top 12 (QBs and TEs) or top 36 (RBs and WRs) in scoring this year. This section is where you might see Allen, Adams or Andrews appear. However, the recommended Bench players shouldn’t be in your Starting lineup for the week based on matchups, past performance against a team or something else.
All stats cited are based on the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system as outlined in the Dynasty Owner Constitution. Standard Dynasty Owner scoring gives you .1 points for every yard rushing or receiving, .1 point for every 2 yards passing, 1 point per reception, 6 points for a rushing, receiving or passing touchdown and 2 points for a successful 2-point conversion (rushing, receiving, or passing). Interceptions or fumbles lost cost you 3 points, while a fumble that is recovered by the player’s team is a loss of only 1 point. Bonus points are available for 100-199 yards rushing (2 points), 200 yards rushing or receiving (6 points), 300-399 yards passing (1 point) and 400 yards passing (4 points). There is also a 3 point bonus for clutch scoring, which is a score that results in a lead change in the final two minutes of the 4th quarter or overtime. Kickoff and punt return touchdowns are worth 6 points for the player and kickoff and punt returns are worth 1 point for every 40 yards.
Any salaries, ADPs and roster percentages listed were current as of the morning of September 7th. 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/).
That was a long introduction and I’ll try to be shorter next week. If you got through it all, thank you and here’s what you really came to read.
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Every week but Week 1, we will look to see how my recommendations from the previous week worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok). For Week 1, we’ll take a look back at how my recommendations fared in past years.
In 2019, I had almost the same percentage of Good recommendations (40%) as Bad ones (43%) with the remaining judged to be Just Ok (17%). In 2020, things took a turn for the worse with less than one-sixth (15%) of my recommendations being Good, over half (53%) being Bad and one-third (32%) falling into the Just Ok category. There was a slight improvement in 2021, as just over one-quarter (27%) were rated as Good, half (52%) were Bad, and one-fifth (21%) were Just Ok.
The 2022 Good recommendations were up slightly again, but still with a lower percentage than 2019 once again. Last year, I made a total of 67 recommendations with 4 per week for 17 weeks minus the one DJ Chark ($5,000,000) recommendation that was rendered “not applicable” as he did not play) and three in ten (31%) were rated as Good. Nearly three-fifths (57%) were Bad, which was also up from the past two years, while only 12% were Just Ok.
Position
Good Picks
Good Pick %
Bad Picks
Bad Pick %
Just Ok Picks
Just Ok Pick %
QB
7
41%
6
35%
4
24%
RB
8
47%
7
41%
2
12%
WR
2
13%
12
75%
2
13%
TE
4
24%
13
76%
0
0%
All positions
21
31%
38
57%
8
12%
In terms of positions, it was completely different between receivers and backfield players. I had 8 Good RB recommendations and 7 Good QB recommendations, but just 4 Good TE recommendations and only 2 Good WR recommendations. Three-quarters of my WR and TE recommendations in 2022 were Bad.
I didn’t have any perfect weeks and Week 5 was the best as I had three Good recommendations and just one Bad one. In contrast, the season got off to a poor start with all four Week 2 recommendations being Bad. In fact, out of 12 recommendations through the first three weeks, only one was Good and one was Just Ok, while the other 10 were Bad. I dug myself into an early hole that I couldn’t dig out of and hopefully won’t do once again in 2023.
These are the players I’m counting on to give me a good start to the season and who I’m recommending you get into your Starting lineup in Week 1.
Baker Mayfield (QB – TB): I know that I shouldn’t read too much into pre-season stats, but Baker Mayfield ($4,000,000) had the fourth best QB passing rating (135.7) during the 2023 pre-season by completing 14 out of 15 passes (93.3%) for 106 passing yards and 2 TDs. He was 6 for 6 with 43 passing yards and a 11-yard TD pass to Chris Godwin ($20,000,000) in the Buccaneers’ pre-season finale against the Ravens. This is good news for Mayfield and the Buccaneers.
Across the field from the Buccaneers will be a Minnesota Vikings defense that gave up 266.9 yards per game passing, which was second worst in the NFL last year. The Vikings secondary is completely reworked as all four cornerbacks who played over 160 snaps for the team in 2022 are no longer on the roster. Two of the returning cornerbacks were on the team last year, but struggled which seems like trouble against a pair of veteran WRs in Godwin and Mike Evans ($16,500,000).
The Buccaneers offensive line is largely rebuilt and will be facing an aggressive blitzing Vikings defense, but if they can give Baker just enough time to find Evans and Godwin enough to be worth having in your Starting lineup.
Raheem Mostert (RB – MIA): The projections have Raheem Mostert ($2,800,000) as the overall RB43 for the season and his Dynasty Owner startup draft ADP is 124.25 so he’s being taken at the start of the 12th round on average. That makes him a very high-end Bench option and with fellow Dolphins RB Jeff Wilson on Injured Reserve (IR) and out for the first four games, Mostert should be the lead RB for the Dolphins.
The Dolphins travel to Los Angeles to play a Chargers defense that was dead last in rushing yards per carry allowed (5.4) last season. They return most of the defensive players who allowed all that yardage, so the conditions exists for the Dolphins and Mostert to run all over them. Hopefully the Dolphins run more than they did in a 23-17 loss against the Chargers in Week 14 when their RBs had 64 rushing yards on just 16 attempts (4.0 yards per carry). Without a solid backup RB, Mostert could easily see 12-15 carries and add in a couple of receptions for an opening game worth having in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
As a bonus pick, in case you don’t think Mostert was truly someone most likely to be a Bench player, I give you Ravens RB Gus Edwards ($4,500,000). Edwards has a Dynasty Owner startup draft ADP of 209.4 and is projected as the RB62 overall. He’s the fifth or sixth RB on a Dynasty Owner roster, but because he’s playing against the Houston Texans this week, I’m saying that you can have him in your Starting lineup. The Texans ranked last in rushing yards per game in 2022 by giving up 170.2 rushing yards per game and were fourth worst in yards per carry (5.1). Edwards has averaged a remarkable 5.2 yards per carry in his career. The Ravens should handily beat the Texans and give Edwards a lot of rushing attempts at the end of the game, so he’ll get enough Dynasty Owner fantasy points to be worth having in your Starting lineup.
Curtis Samuel (WR – WAS): The Commanders will be playing on Sunday in front of a sell-out crowd at FedEx Field and facing the team (Arizona) widely expected to be the worst in the NFL this season. Because the Commanders are finally under new ownership, I would expect the team to come out and play well in front of a full stadium likely full of their own fans, as opposed to other teams’ fans as they have done many times over the past few seasons.
Last season, Curtis Samuel ($11,500,000) jumped out to a quick start with 18.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 and a season-high 22.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 2. In both games, against Jacksonville at home and Detroit on the road, Samuel caught a TD pass. Things slowed down after that, and he finished the 2022 season with a total of 174.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 17 games played (10.29 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game).
With fellow WR Terry McLaurin ($22,788,000) limited in practice on Wednesday and questionable due to a turf toe injury suffered back in Week 2 of the pre-season, Samuel could be asked to step up again at the beginning of the 2023 season and there’s no better way to do that then against one of the worst defenses in the league. As the projected WR62 for the 2023 season and with an ADP of 257.0, Samuel definitely projects as a season-long Bench player, but he should be in your Starting lineup this week against the Cardinals.
Tyler Higbee (TE – LAR): Cooper Kupp ($26,700,000) was ruled out of Sunday’s game against Seattle, which means a group of young and mostly unproven WRs will be taking the field for the Rams. With the Rams’ opponent in Week 1 (Seattle) likely down two starting secondary players (veteran safety Jamal Adams has been ruled out and rookie first round NFL draft pick cornerback Devon Witherspoon has been limited in practice and largely out of action for three weeks with a sore hamstring), it’ll likely be Higbee who steps into Kupp’s place as Stafford’s favorite receiver.
In two games against Seattle last year, Higbee was targeted 12 times but only had six receptions for 47 receiving yards. However, that was with John Wolford ($1,010,000) and Baker Mayfield under center for the Rams, not Stafford. In nine games last season together, Stafford targeted Higbee 65 times for 40 receptions and 357 receiving yards, but zero TDs (75.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) for an average of 8.41 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game. Higbee had five games with double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points with Stafford at QB, and I think he’ll get his first double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy point game in Week 1 of 2023 because both Kupp and Adams are sitting out.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
Now it’s time to look at how my Bench recommendations from the previous week worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok). Once again, I’ll take a look back at how my previous season recommendations fared since there are no previous week’s recommendations.
In 2019, I had more Good recommendations than Bad ones (42% Good vs. 32% Bad) with the remaining 27% being Just Ok. Similar to the Starting recommendations, things got worse in 2020. The percentage of Good recommendations slipped down to just over one-third (35%), while the percentage of Bad recommendations increased to two-fifths (42%). The remaining one-quarter (23%) were Just Ok. The 2021 Bench recommendations were a slight bit better as almost two-fifths (38%) were Bad, while just over one-third (35%) were rated as Good, with the remaining over one-quarter (26%) being Just Ok.
Once again, I improved in my 2022 Bench recommendations compared to last year, had more Good than Bad recommendations and was nearly back to my 2019 percentages. Out of 68 recommendation in total (4 per week for 17 weeks), almost half (46%) were rated as Good, compared to just over two-fifths (41%) that were Bad. The remaining 13% were Just Ok.
Position
Good Picks
Good Pick %
Bad Picks
Bad Pick %
Just Ok Picks
Just Ok Pick %
QB
8
47%
6
35%
3
18%
RB
5
29%
10
59%
2
12%
WR
9
53%
6
35%
2
12%
TE
9
53%
6
35%
2
12%
All positions
31
46%
28
41%
9
13%
If it wasn’t for RBs, I would have been over 50% Good recommendations overall. RB was the only position in which I had more Bad than Good recommendations and it dragged my entire Good percentage down. I did the best at picking receivers to Bench as my Good percentage for both WRs and TEs was over half (53%).
The consistency of the Bench recommendations was remarkable as I never had a week without a Good recommendation. On the flip side, only once did I avoid having a Bad recommendation. That was the final week of the Dynasty Owner regular season (Week 14) when I had two Good and two Just Ok recommendations. Hopefully I can be consistent once again in 2023, but reduce the number of Bad recommendations and have a majority of recommendations be Good. Here are the guys who I’m recommending you keep on your Bench (or Practice Squad) in Week 1 to get the 2023 season off to a solid start.
Joe Burrow (QB – CIN): Last year, I used Aaron Rodgers ($37,500,000) because he had an almost completely new group of WRs and didn’t play any pre-season games with them. I was correct as he ended up struggling in Week 1 with just 3.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Since Rodgers played in the third pre-season game versus the Giants and is barely considered a Starter now (he is projected as the #12 ranked QB in Dynasty Owner this year), I’m going to need to look elsewhere. That led me to Joe Burrow ($9,047,534).
I’m very high on Burrow and the Bengals this season and predicted them to win the Super Bowl in recently released Dynasty Owner podcast with Jay Pounds. Burrow’s not here because I think he won’t be a great QB this year, he’s here mainly because the Bengals are playing the Browns and he didn’t play at all in the pre-season due to a calf injury. He also hasn’t had much practice time either due to that injury.
The Browns have a good secondary with their top three cornerbacks from last year returning. They held Burrow to 39.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in two games last season, including just 17.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 8. Burrow has started somewhat slowly in each of the past two seasons with 23.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 versus Pittsburgh last year and 25.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 2021 versus Minnesota. Not terrible, but below his season-long average in both seasons.
I know it’s difficult for Dynasty Owners with Burrow as their QB to Bench him this week, but if you have an expensive veteran backup with a better Week 1 matchup, such as Kirk Cousins ($35,000,000) or even Derek Carr ($37,500,000) take a long look at it. You might agree with me and put Burrow on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Najee Harris (RB – PIT): The pre-season fantasy hate for Najee Harris ($3,261,862) is real but mostly located outside of Dynasty Owner as Harris’ salary and workload potential are keeping him at an ADP of 32.6 in Dynasty Owner startup drafts despite being projected as the RB14 for the 2023 season. His ADP makes him the 12th RB off the board in a typical Dynasty Owner startup draft and his 2021 ADP (6.8) and 2022 ADP (3.1) means that his Dynasty Owners used a first round pick, or a lot of solid draft capital and good players, to acquire him.
I’m not sold that Jaylen Warren ($857,333) is going to replace Harris this season or that Harris will “struggle” once again in 2023. I put quotes around struggle as I don’t think RB14 is too bad of a season, just disappointing based on his ADP.
However, the reason for Harris being here has less to do with Warren and Harris’ disappointing 2022 season and more to do with the fact that the Steelers face the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1. The 49ers were the second ranked rushing defense in 2022 at 82.5 rushing yards per game and 3.4 yards per carry. That defense just got Nick Bosa back too. That’s why Najee should be on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Gabriel Davis (WR – BUF): This might be considered a stretch, but Gabriel Davis ($998,595) does have an ADP of 95.7 in Dynasty Owner startup drafts which makes him a late eighth round draft pick and one of the Starters for most Dynasty Owners who draft him. Admittedly, it’s more likely because of his sub-$1 million salary than anything else. However, Davis is also projected as the WR33 for the 2023 season, which puts him as a FLEX starter, so he fits both of the main criteria.
Against the Jets last season, Davis had a total of 11.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions for 64 receiving yards) on 9 targets. The Jets have all three of their main cornerbacks returning from a defense that allowed only 189.4 passing yards per game in 2022. That was third best in the NFL behind only Philadelphia and New Orleans. The fact that they’ve held Davis down before and the Jets will be playing at home on Monday Night Football and Jets’ fans are really excited for this season helps me to think that the Bills passing game may struggle overall, with Davis the most likely receiver to struggle individually.
Darren Waller (TE – LV): All three of the top TEs in projected Dynasty Owner fantasy points have the “Q” for Questionable listed next to their name. That’s potentially not a good start for the top TEs for 2023. Travis Kelce has drawn the most attention and I won’t pick him here since he may not play on Thursday night against the Lions. The other two TEs, Mark Andrews ($14,000,000) and George Kittle ($15,000,000), should play well enough to be worth a spot in your Starting lineup.
Last year, I had Waller ($17,000,000) here in Week 1 and I’m going with him once again. He burned me though with 11.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 79 receiving yards) for the Raiders last year. That was then and he’s on the Giants now. He is considered their de facto WR1 and even though his Dynasty Owner startup draft ADP is 133.3 and the highest among the top 15 TEs in projected 2023 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, it’s because he’s the highest paid TE in Dynasty Owner this year. If Dynasty Owners drafted him, or kept him on their roster after his $17 million salary kicked in, they believe in Waller and plan on having him in their Starting lineup.
I’m here to throw cold water on that idea because the Giants face the Dallas Cowboys who have a really good defense, only gave up 1 receiving TD to a TE last year and an average of 4.5 receptions for 37 receiving yards. In two games versus Dallas last year, Giants QB Daniel Jones ($40,000,000) had just 424 passing yards and a single TD. Maybe Waller will get to the magical 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy point level to be worth having in your Starting lineup on volume and without a TD, but I’d play it safe and put Waller on your Bench this week.
Conclusion
It’s time for the NFL and Dynasty Owner seasons to get started already. It’s only a few hours away from the Thursday Night Football matchup between the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Hard Knocks darlings from last year Detroit Lions. After that game is over or even during the game, you can check out the 2023 Chase for the Ring standings to see if your Dynasty Owner team has cracked the Top 100. If you’re there at any point in the season, don’t forget to take a screenshot and post it on social media so everyone knows how much you are crushing it this season. It’s not easy to get there, or stay on the leaderboard, so enjoy your time on it and make sure to brag a little bit about it to your friends, family and the other teams in your Dynasty Owner league.
You may have noticed that there’s no Match-up of the Week this year. It’s more difficult to do this season than in the past so I’m moving it to be a Twitter/X feature and plan on posting it, likely on Fridays. If you don’t already do it, please follow me there (@SteveVT33) for that unique Dynasty Owner feature and to see who’s going up against Dynasty|Trade|School (D|T|S) with his Chase for the Ring Championship team from last season. You can send me your match-up for future weeks, but we always do the reigning Chase for the Ring Champion in Week 1.
Please read this weekly preview article each and every week to see my recommendations for who should be in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and who should be on your Bench. If you have one of the players mentioned, hopefully it will assist you with your lineup decisions. While some Dynasty Owners may heed my advice, others might disagree, or not have a better option for their Starting lineup and choose to ignore a Bench recommendation. Other Dynasty Owners may not need Starting lineup help as they have a stud player at a position who isn’t moving to the Bench unless he’s injured or on bye.
If you like, or dislike, these recommendations, think you can do better, or even agree and want everyone to know, please comment when this article is published by Dynasty Owner on Twitter/X, or like the article posted on Facebook or Instagram and add your comment there. We appreciate the feedback from our fellow Dynasty Owners.
In addition to this preview, Dynasty Owner also has other content to help you out. Jay Pounds had Week 0 Free Agent Auction targets article published on Tuesday. He’ll be back every Tuesday during the 2023 season with a list of five (or more) 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. We also have the weekly Livestream with me and Dynasty Owner CEO Tim Peffer, which will be going live on Wednesday afternoons at 4:45 PM (Eastern) for the entire 2023 season. In addition to the afternoon Livestream yesterday, we had a Live Dynasty Owner draft special on Wednesday evening. If you missed either one of those broadcasts, then go watch them 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
Dynasty Owners, the regular season is just a couple of days away at the time of writing this and I know all of you are just as excited as I am. In the kickoff game, we will see the defending Super Bowl champion the Kansas City Chiefs take on last year’s sweetheart team who barely missed the playoffs, the Detroit Lions. The opener will have quite a few things I’ll be watching for, but none more closely than if the Lions offense can pick up where it left off in 2022. Down the stretch of 2022, the Lions may have been the best team in football and were easily a top 3 team during that stretch. We will quickly figure out if they are the team we saw at the end of last season or the team that we saw struggle during the beginning of the campaign. On the other side of the ball, I will be paying close attention to how the Chiefs utilize players such as Sky Moore ($1,612,625) and Kadarius Toney ($3,429,877).
Before we jump into today’s article, let’s quickly take a look at some of my favorite Week 1 matchups. My most anticipated Week 1 matchup has to be the Steelers vs. the 49ers, I know I’m biased but it has a ton of great storylines that will be fun to see play out. The Bengals vs. the Browns is another matchup will be paying close attention too with the Jaguars vs. the Colts being the last big matchup on my watchlist, though I would be happy with a Cardinals vs. Texans game at this point.
Hello folks, I will be bringing all of you a free agent article every week this season just as I have done the past few seasons. If you are new to this series of articles there is a small list of requirements with the main one being the player must be 75% rostered or below in Dynasty Owner. The only other requirement I have is that I would like the player to have a salary of $8,000,000 or less, but I will put a higher salary player on the list if I feel they are worth it. Free Agent Auction bids will process on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern) for this upcoming week, so there’s still time to get your bid in for Week 1. The Bid listed below is my recommended amount to secure the player for your Dynasty Owner team in the Wednesday Free Agent Auction run in a typical Dynasty Owner league.
Enough jibber jabber let’s look at the free agents for Week 0. Ya, I stole Week 0 from college football!
Is there anything better than a cheap starting quarterback in Dynasty Owner? I think not. As I have said so many times in the past, cheap productive quarterbacks are Dynasty Owner gold! I know Dobbs has not been named the starter just yet, but it has been fairly easy to see the writing on the wall ever since the team went out and traded for him a couple of weeks back. Many Dynasty Owners have decided that Dobbs is going to be the starter in Arizona as well because his roster percentage is up from 20.62% last week when he was a Deep Flyer in my Free Agent Watch article. Let’s look at why Dobbs should be the starter after only being in town a short period of time. In 2022, Dobbs did the same exact thing for the Titans and almost earned them a playoff berth in the process. In those 2 starts for the Titans, Dobbs finished with 411 yards passing, 2 touchdowns, as well as 2 interceptions. The Cardinals best chance at having a competent offense is with Dobbs under center and I believe the whole world outside of the Cardinals organization knows it.
I see not many are interested in either of these guys after I had both in last week’s article since their roster percentages increased by only a couple of percentage points. One of them is bound to be a quality player for at least the first half of the fantasy season while Jameson Williams ($4,365,448) is suspended for the first six games, then returns and gets eased back into the action. We have not seen much from Williams since he dominated his final year of college at Alabama, which is another factor working in both of these players’ favor. Williams is a tremendous talent, but he has been and still is a huge question mark which could mean a full season of a huge role for one of Jones or Reynolds. I know neither is a big name and both will probably make you feel like you need a bath if you put them anywhere near your Starting lineup, but one will be a very good Bench option for half of the year at minimum. Both are capable of racking up 400 yards receiving and a couple of touchdowns before Williams gets back from suspension, but which receiver will step up as the number 2 guy behind Amon-Ra St. Brown ($1,066,313)?
Bid – $1,000,000 Dynasty Dollars
Adam Trautman (TE – DEN) 1 year/$1,124,851 – 52.92% Rostered
Were all of you as surprised as I was when I heard the news that Adam Trautman was the number 1 tight end for the Denver Broncos over Greg Dulcich ($1,314,785)? Do you think this is just a play to throw the Raiders off in Week 1? I don’t know either, but I can’t wait to find out. Trautman had some real hype behind him when the Saints and Sean Peyton drafted him out of Dayton and though he never really took off, Peyton apparently is still a believer after bringing Trautman to Denver and making him the starter. In all honesty, I am not thrilled about this as I wanted to see what Dulcich could do as a starter for a full season, and I think we all have a pretty good idea of what Trautman is at this point. However, a low salary and an opportunity to have a big role in a Sean Peyton coached offense means some of us have to take a shot with Trautman.
I feel like a broken record talking about Darius Slayton so much, but I feel he is going to surprise some people this year when he goes over the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career. I know $6,000,000 seems steep for a player that could end up as the 3rd or 4th option in the Giants’ passing game, but I am expecting him to be the clear 2nd option in the passing game behind tight end Darren Waller ($17,000,000). As I mentioned last week, outside of 2021 Slayton has never had less than 724 yards receiving in a season and outside of injury I see no chance he does not hit those numbers again. Should Waller or Saquon Barkley ($10,091,000) go down at any point in the season, Slayton would be my bet to see an increased workload which is just another reason to pick up the Giants wideout.
I wanted to find a dark horse player to put on this list and Gaskin stood out to me quite a bit. The Vikings have shown they aren’t very confident in the players behind Alexander Mattison ($3,500,000) pretty much since the start of the pre-season and the signing of Gaskin further proves my theory. Gaskin has spent significant time as a lead back in the NFL and will make for an excellent 1-2 punch with Mattison and should Mattison go down at any point, Gaskin is more than capable of carrying the load for a few game stretch. I am not sure Gaskin will see a ton of work over the first couple of weeks to start the season, but I am confident he will have a role in the offense after just a few weeks. Gaskin is not the most talented player in the world, but he is respectable in the running game and does very well in the passing game which suits the team that just signed him well.
Bid – $1,000,000 Dynasty Dollars
Thank you all for reading! Be sure to check out all of the upcoming article from me and Steve plus the Dynasty Owner podcast this week and the Dynasty Owner Livestream every Wednesday afternoon. Stay safe out there and good luck on your 2023 Chase for the Ring!
