Fantasy Football

This is the Waiver Wire Week 8, and wow, yesterday was a tumultuous day for Breece Hall managers. Maybe you drafted him in dynasty as the 1.01 in all formats- even Superflex. Perhaps you drafted him in redraft as a fifth-round steal. Either way, you played it perfectly. You filtered out all of the noise, the “bad landing spot” narrative, and the hilarious “crowded backfield,” arguments. Through six weeks, and despite a mediocre Jets offense, Hall was RB7 overall and the focal point of a winning team. He had league winner written all over him. This past Sunday, he ripped off a 62-yard TD run on the road in Denver. Things were going great, and then disaster fell- a knee injury. 

The worst part of our beloved game is the frequency of injuries. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of such a fast-paced, contact-heavy sport. It’s something that is important to remember as we approach the first full week of the preseason. Luckily for the NFL players, they have access to some of the best doctors in the world and can usually return to form at least by the next season. Unfortunately for us fantasy players, it’s not always easy to know when a player will get hurt. To another degree, sometimes your roster isn’t big enough to plan ahead for an injury. This series, the Infirmary Report, will give you advice on the injuries that have happened every week during the season. Without further ado, here is the Infirmary Report: Post Week 7 of regular season action.

The Bears pass defense has looked good on paper because their rush defense is a sieve. The Bears’ defense ranks last in the league in Rushing Attempts (157) and Rushing Yards Allowed (737). Their lofty 21.2 Fantasy Points Allowed is No. 5 worst.

The Bears have been giving to opposing D/STs, allowing top 7 performances in three of their past four games. The Patriots rank No. 10 in Sack Rate (7.3-percent) and have recorded fantasy finishes of No. 5 or better in three straight weeks.

On the season, Jalen Hurts has thrown for 1514 yards (No. 8) with 6 passing touchdowns (No. 17). With 77 carries (No. 1) for 293 rushing yards (No. 2) and 6 rushing TDs (No. 1), Hurts provides a fantasy-friendly floor.

Hurts owns career-best marks in True Passer Rating (100.3, No. 7),  True Completion Percentage (71.5-percent, No. 13), and Accuracy Rating (8.0, No. 8). Not surprising, he is producing a career-high 24.6 Fantasy Points Per Game (fppg) good for QB3.

The season hasn’t started as planned for off-season breakout candidate Elijah Moore. The sophomore receiver has earned only 30 targets on the season seeing a 13.6-percent Target Share (No. 70). Moore has steadily seen his Snap Share decline over the last four games. Moore has requested a trade but the Jets’ management maintains that it will not happen.

It is always astonishing how quickly the Fantasy Football season can fly by. We have now reached the halfway point, and this is usually around the time that teams are seeking to make trades to bolster their championship-destined rosters. There are several struggling stars who have had slow starts to the year to target via trade. On the contrary, there are some sneaky options on the market that could prove to be diamonds in the rough for the second half of the season. Here are my picks for 10 trade targets that could help guide you to the promised land.

When you thought things couldn’t get worse for Terry McLaurin at the QB position, it did. Carson Wentz isn’t giving McLaurin the love his previous QBs were. McLaurin’s 16.4-percent target share ranks No. 57 among wide receivers. His 15.5-percent target rate ranks No. 83. Even the targets he is getting aren’t moving the needle. McLaurin’s target quality rating ranks No. 27 at receiver, and his 7.4 target accuracy is No. 50. But Carson Wentz injured a finger on his throwing hand and will miss 4-6 weeks. Enter Taylor Heinicke. Is Taylor Heinicke good? Not really! I thought Wentz was going to be an upgrade entering this season.

A brief recap of Week 6: Devin Singletary and Kyle Pitts both saw their share price increase, while Lamar Jackson went down. BUT if you joined the PlayerProfiler Discord server, you would have received a fourth buy option from me: Ja’Marr Chase. That was the big money-making move on the platform! Let’s carry the momentum into Week 7.

The NFL’s leading rusher missed his Prediction Strike projection for the first time this season last week and his price plummeted from $10.04 to $8.74 per share. It appears that Prediction Strike has overreacted to this and dropped Nick Chubb’s projection to 15.03 points, which is the lowest since Week 1 and it’s 2.5 points lower than his previous two weeks.

This is the Best Pick ‘Em Player Props for Week 7! We finally got an offensive showcase on Thursday Night Football. However, this was not in a fantasy-football-shattering fashion as we saw touchdowns from several players not rostered in most leagues and not offered on pick ‘em sites. Is it going to be that kind of week? Or, will we see stars be stars in Week 7? Welcome back to the article series where we spot values in player prop over/unders. In these articles, I review selections from the previous week, then give out my favorite player prop pick ‘ems for the upcoming weekend on the DFS pages of Underdog Fantasy and Sleeper.

Each passing week of the NFL season means that we have more information about teams, players, and strengths and weaknesses of defenses.

Terry McLaurin has been predictable the past three weeks. He struggled against a top corner in Week 4 when he faced Trevon Diggs, put up top-30 numbers against a porous Titans secondary in Week 5, and finished with another bad performance against Jaylon Johnson and the strong Bears pass defense in Week 6.

The Saint’s 2022 QB Carousel has been frustrating for fantasy gamers, and the picture isn’t getting any clearer this week. On another short weeks rest, head coach Dennis Allen states that he wants to get Jameis Winston “…fully healthy and go from there,” and appeared pleased with Andy Dalton’s performances. The likely event is that Winston is active again as an “emergency quarterback” and Dalton gets the start. The human Red Panda is an effective real-life game manager but not an effective fantasy quarterback. He’s posted a season-high 13 fantasy points, so it’s best to look for other options even in 2QB leagues.