Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are half PPR scoring unless otherwise noted.

252 Yards from Scrimmage

For the second week in a row, Dalvin Cook reached 200 yards from scrimmage in another dominating performance. This time around, he only needed 22 carries to hit 206 rushing yards, but he still added 2 catches for 46 yards for good measure. He did “only” find the end zone twice, but it was enough to be the top scorer for the second week in a row with 38.2 points. Most weeks I wonder if someone will turn in a performance on Monday night that makes one of my entries a moot point. This week is not one of those times. Cook is now the RB1 on the season with a 10-point lead over Alvin Kamara, who turned in a mere 49 yards from scrimmage in a game where his team put up 38 points. Cook has 13 touchdowns in just 7 games and is basically single-handedly dragging his team out of the basement of the NFC North. An honorable mention goes to Christian McCaffrey, who did not skip a beat and put up 32.1 points in his return, continuing his average of scoring 2 TDs per game. Unfortunately, it sounds like McCaffrey is headed to the bench with another injury.

2% Ownership in Fleaflicker Leagues

There were a number of familiar names on the top WR list of the week, but the one above all the others was definitely new to me. Richie James, who is owned in just 2% of Fleaflicker leagues, and was started in zero leagues that you or I are in, had 3 receptions over 40 yards, including his 41-yard touchdown in what can only be described as garbage time while the 49ers were down 34-10 late in the 4^th quarter. Fantasy football, however, does not care what the score is on the field, so James gets credit for all the 28.9 points that he earned last Thursday night. James just barely edged out Tyreek Hill, who put up his first 100 receiving yard game of the season and caught the 100^th (and 101^st) touchdown pass of Patrick Mahomes’ career. Hill has been around for all of them – he also caught Mahomes’ first TD pass back in 2018. Mahomes is the fastest QB to 100 passing TDs, beating Dan Marino’s mark by 4 games.

3^rd Week as the Top TE

Travis Kelce has been the top TE on a weekly basis for 1/3^rd of the season so far. Not too bad when you consider just how volatile the position is in fantasy football. Kelce is basically a lock for the top spot when he reaches the 20-point mark. This week, and last’s, 20.9-point performances were good for the lead, and it wasn’t even close. He also put up 20.8 in Week 5 and led the league. On the season, Kelce is just dominating the position and is in tier 1 all by himself and it’s not even close. You might say that tier 2 is his as well, considering he has 139.9 points on the season and the next closest player is over 50 points behind him. Darren Waller has quietly been the TE2 on the season without ever finishing in the top 2 of any given week. Waller leads his team in both receptions and receiving yards, though being 8 games into the season and not having a single receiving leader over 400 yards is nothing to write home about.

8^th Most Rushing Yards in the League

Kyler Murray did all he could on Sunday to win but lost to a very surprising Miami team that is playing way beyond any level that people expected this season. Murray added another 106 rushing yards to his already gaudy numbers this season. For the year, he has the 8^th most rushing yards of any player in the league. He’s averaging 7.14 yards per carry. If he never threw a pass, he would be the RB13– 102.3 points come from his rushing yards and 8 rushing TDs. As it stands, Murray is the QB1 on the season with 240.5 points in 8 games. He leads a tier 1 of QBs that include 3 other players, all of whom deserve MVP votes so far this year. Patrick Mahomes got a shout out earlier, but really the major props go to Josh Allen who shut up his critics for a week with his 44-34 win over the Seahawks. Russell Wilson was the only one of the group to struggle, turning the ball over 4 times and scoring his second-lowest total of the season, 24.1 points.

8 Rushing Yards

Tom Brady suffered the worst defeat of his career (35 points) last night and everybody was invited to watch it on Sunday Night Football. The Buccaneers combined for just 8 total rushing yards in a game where none of their players reached double-digit fantasy points. Brady had just 209 passing yards and 3 INTs as he could only muster a late field goal for his team to keep them from being shut out. On the other side, Drew Brees was the only one with a good fantasy game, despite his team putting up 38 points. Brees found the end zone 4 times reaching 22.68 fantasy points, nearly 10 more than the next highest player on his team. Of note in this game was the fact that it contained the two all-time passing touchdown leaders in the NFL. Brees and Brady keep trading the top spot, but this week it was all Brees. He’s now in the lead 564-561.

Week 9 is upon us and there are already some major fantasy issues to deal with, from the loss of Derrick Henry to Henry Ruggs getting into a major traffic accident that may land him behind bars. As always, pay attention to the rankings and injury reports throughout the week and make smart decisions as we head down the road to the playoffs!

Good luck, and feel free to reach out to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any specific questions or comments that you might have. We are now broadcasting our weekly podcast, The Fantasy Finish Line, LIVE on YouTube every Wednesday at 9pm CT during the regular season. Tune in!

Trades…vaccination issues…felony car crashes…MVP’s lost for the season…teams telling stars to just go home…don’t you just hate how boring the week can be before we get to the next Sunday?

Well let’s try to get some for excitement back and get going with these picks!

Week 9 – HERE WE GO!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN CAPS)

14 – DALLAS over Denver – Much to the dismay of, well, basically everyone outside of Dallas, it seem like this Cowboys team is legit.

13 – Buffalo over JACKSONVILLE – An obvious candidate for our top line this week, but its hard to 100% trust a road team.

12 – NEW ORLEANS over Atlanta – Sure there are QB questions in New Orleans now, but there are way more issues in Atlanta right now.

11 – KANSAS CITY over Green Bay – Obviously there is one big factor to think of when picking this game…game time temp…right?

10 – LOS ANGELES RAMS over Tennessee – A prime time game against one of the best looking teams in the league is not the best time to lose your MVP running back.

9 – PITTSBURGH over Chicago – The Steelers showed that they won’t just be rolling over and dying this season last week – not good news for a struggling Bears team.

8 – INDIANAPOLIS over New York Jets – It’s really hard to think that the Jets can run on Mike White’s magic again.

7 – CINCINNATI over Cleveland – The Browns just seem to have too much locker room drama to win in Cincy.

6 – BALTIMORE over Minnesota –  I’ve been on the Viking bandwagon most of the season…losing to Cooper Rush is a quick way for me to jump off.

5 – MIAMI over Houston – With all the trade rumors behind him, I see a big day for the current Miami quarterback. My BOLD PREDICTION for this week is that TUA WILL FINISH WITH OVER 400 PASSIG YARDS.

4 – Las Vegas over NEW YORK GIANTS – Welp, the Raiders won their last “after a rough week” game following the Gruden following, playing the Giants is a reason to think they can do it again.

3 – New England over CAROLINA – If Christian McCaffrey ends up playing, feel free to flip this one to a Carolina win.

2 – PHILADELPHIA over Los Angeles Chargers – Last week gave me reason to pump some breaks on the Chargers being an elite team.

1 – SAN FRANCISCO over Arizona – It sounds like injuries are catching up to the Cardinals.