Week 14 was yet another mixed bag of a week, but I’d lean toward the positive overall.
One of the biggest flops of the week was the freaking first guy I listed. You know, the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady. I have no lesson there, since the matchup was very good and Brady and the Bucs should have done better coming out of the bye. I also got sucked into Kirk Cousins in this matchup, despite my inclination to avoid these potential low-volume, non-running QBs. Sure enough, Kirkie came up small. Do me a favor. For the rest of the regular season (I won’t but just in case), if I list Cousins, Baker Mayfield, Derek Carr, or Ryan Tannehill, just ignore it. I’ve had enough of these types this year. I want higher-volume passing, running, or preferably both.
I did bite the bullet and went with Jalen Hurts, and I stated all week that every time a player fits Hurts’ profile - talented running QB who will take off and excel on the ground making his first start - the player has come through. We can now add Hurts to the list of successful first starts. We’ll see if he can continue to play well as the film on him grows, but he’s passed his first big test. I also went right back to Taysom Hill, and that worked.
I also listed Deshaun Watson, but in my defense I didn’t know Brandin Cooks was going to miss the game, so if you’re not already, you have to check in on the support players for these suggestions when the inactives and lineup notes are announced. I took some points away from Watson when the Cooks news came down, but it only moved him down one spot, below Russell Wilson. I did like Wilson a lot in Week 14, and I should have listed him, by the way.
I also stupidly took a shot with Mike Glennon, thinking I could sneak in a quick “win” with a guy who should have been able to put up 16+ FP with a good matchup and a ton of solid receivers to throw to. But nope. I actually pre-wrote the crux of the lesson learned within the actual Glennon writeup, as I wrote that “he’s obviously a shaky option and he’s been sketchy on film the last two weeks.” Since he’s been sketchy on film, I should have just passed on him, but I kinda thought Gardner Minshew was dead for the rest of 2020.
It was a weird week for the QBs, with many higher-end options coming up small, so here’s a lesson: if you’re stuck at QB, go with the cheapest guy who’s in our top-5 for the week. Those guys (Watson, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen) did mostly well this week.
It has not been a good year at all for picking cheap, low-end QBs, and that used to be my jam in DFS. This year, most of the time a QB needs to run to be reliable if he’s low-priced.
It was a rough week for RBs overall, but the selections were pretty good: David Montgomery, Jonathan Taylor, Ronald Jones, Kenyan Drake, Derrick Henry, and Chris Carson all hit with most hitting well.
I did lose by listing Aaron Jones, but that was really the only bad RB call for the week. I’d argue it wasn’t my bad call but instead the Packers coaches, who continue to screw Jones and his fantasy owners with their limited/inconsistent usage of Jones. I did also list Myles Gaskin - and then he was placed on the Covid list, so that one doesn’t count.
WR was a little sparse, honestly, and I should have listed a few more options I liked, such as Calvin Ridley, Michael Thomas, Robby Anderson, Amari Cooper, AJ Brown, and TY Hilton. All of those players were listed in my Hansen’s Hints article I put out on Sunday morning, so if you’re looking for more recommendations from me, check that article out and compare the players’ salaries and projections for the best plays. For the rest of the season, I’m going to list some more player recommendations but with no analysis because this damn article basically takes me all day Friday to write.
Otherwise, WR was a mixed bag. Brandon Aiyuk was great, and apparently we were higher on him than anyone last week. But Adam Thielen and Terry McLaurin were not great. I guess McLaurin’s not QB-proof, after all.
Diontae Johnson was listed and my first sentence in the writeup started with “he could get benched,” so I did warn people. He probably would have easily had 7-8 catches for 65-75 had he not been benched, so he should have hit 14-20 FP. I did also list DK Metcalf, and he was solid.
On the low-end, it wasn’t great with Michael Gallup and Tee Higgins not delivering, but Tim Patrick did get it done.
At TE, once again, a mixed bag. I had the call of the week, Mike Gesicki, profiled at the top, so that was nice since he came through majorly despite missing a healthy chunk of the game with an injury. Old reliable TJ Hockenson also came through again.
But Noah Fant screwed people again, and it’s not like we got notice of his illness before the 1PM kickoffs, so that sucked. Dalton Schultz was meh, Logan Thomas was at least active and technically he was a win, with 10+ FP at only $3300. I took a big swing and a miss yet again with Jordan Akins, who did get a healthy number of targets (6) and an endzone look. Now that I’m giving up on Akins (the last person in America to do so), a 2-TD game is likely in his future (he did get some red-zone love last week).
I also had Mark Andrews in the article, and while he was “only” TE8 on the week with 5/78 on 6 targets, I’m calling him a win because Lamar Jackson missed him for an easy 55-yard TD in the first half. So overall, TE was decent.
