“Dream on.” — Steven Tyler. “Keep dreamin.” — Freddy Krueger.Â
I love dreaming — it’s where my fantasy teams aren’t complete garbaggio due to massive injuries. Right now, there is a team that had an awesome draft by going Jonathan Taylor/Justin Jefferson/Cordarrelle Patterson/Pat Freiermuth/Lenny. OK, maybe your team didn’t draft like that — Pat Freiermuth in the 4th round? How was that possible? But for the rest of us that were drafting sensibly, we’re entering the Nightmare on 13th Week, a spine-tingling time where our teams that are held together by the warriors named Boston Scott and Kendrick Bourne try to make the playoffs. Can we here at Razzball do anything to save your season? Let’s find out after the jump!
Quarterbacks
Kirk Cousins:Â Oh come on, Kirk Cousins has a revenge game narrative, no Dalvin Cook (probably) and he’s facing off against Detroit in a game that has massive wild card consequences and will likely save Mike Zimmer’s career…and he’s 72% rostered? Every single format of fantasy football: you’re riding with Captain Kirk this week.Â
Taysom Hill: The Saints are basically the Walking Dead at this point, which explains why Zombie Owner signed 31-year old Taysom Hill to a contract extension that makes him one of the higher-paid QBs in the NFL should he keep the job. So, point is…there’s 5 weeks left for the Saints to figure out if Taysom is gonna be the guy for 2022 or whether they’re gonna go get some elite QB like Colt McCoy. Taysom is available in all leagues and has top 10 QB potential on a per-game basis, but he’s also extremely run-dependent. Last year, 30% of Hill’s total yards came by foot, and his rushing TDs doubled his passing TDs. Let me recap my essay On the Fecklessness of Rushing QBs for you: Rushing QBs are tough to project. We love it when they succeed. But cha’ know what? Lamar Jackson is QB8 on the year. You coulda’ had Tom Brady — QB3 on the year — like 10 rounds later in the draft. Rushing QBs are so fun when they’re healthy, and Taysom is a few weeks removed from a concussion. You know who else was a rushing QB and had a concussion? Daniel Jones, who’s getting benched for elite backup Mike Glennon this week. So, roll the dice with Taysom this week, but don’t blame me if he turns into a pumpkin.Â
Running Backs
Alexander Mattison:Â Again, duba tee eff…80% rostered and an important game against the Lions. Just go add him.Â
Kene Nwangwu:Â He has returned 8 kickoffs on the year for the Vikings, and 2 of those went for touchdowns. Nwangwu steps into Mattison’s role as the spelling RB, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the young utilityback find himself in a couple of Deebo Samuel-esque plays. 1% rostered, but it’s such a thin RB wire week, I wouldn’t be opposed to trying some gadget players this week.Â
Receivers
Hunter Renfrow:Â I’m just gonna save this guy a seat every week. He’s WR20 on the year, just pulled off a WR5 finish, and he’s still available in 20% of leagues. Clearly, 20% of people in the world don’t read this article every week because I’ve been asking you to add Renfrow since that fabled time when Chris Carson still played football.Â
Kendrick Bourne:Â WR24 on the season and WR12 since week 3 (thanks to John Paulsen from 4for4 for that tidbit). Available in 80% of leagues. Do 80% of people play in worst ball leagues?Â
Zach Ertz:Â He’s a top 10 TE and available in 40% of leagues. Wha? How? Literally, all my blurbs are just me being puzzled at why fantasy footballers just don’t want to roster good players. Are y’all that committed to Jonnu Smith or something?Â
Thursday Night Football
Saints vs Cowboys! Again, another game that seemed logically exciting in June and is now just a bore-fest. OK, maybe Alvin Kamara shows up and my teams have hope again, (Monday morning editor note: Sounds like Kamara isn’t playing…sigh) and maybe Amari Cooper didn’t cough over everybody and spread Covid (true story: Cooper came off the Covid-19 list and showed up to work sick). The Saints are in the hands of Taysom Hill, which could make for an exciting game or a complete Cowboys blowout, which basically no median outcome in-between. The books have the Cowboys as the solid -200 favorite at the time of writing and the Saints at a not-unreasonable +185. I can easily imagine a gameplan where Taysom has his feet under him and is dinking-and-dunking around the field and Trayvon Diggs is helpless to stop him. I can also envision a game outcome where Hill can’t throw anything deep anyway (4.6 completed air yards per attempt in 2020) so the Cowboys just crash the line and they win by 3 TDs with Tony Pollard working the entire 4th quarter. This is honestly a pretty boring game for fantasy football: start the whole Cowboys team, and sit the whole Saints team unless you’re desperate.Â
Let me know if you have any questions down in the comments, and have an awesome week!
