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If you read my last player highlight, I covered Tight End Dawson Knox. He continues to be a hot add, but the tight end landscape is more barren then ever and makes me yawn just thinking about covering another deep speculative add. This week I am going to cover the 4^th quarter darling from the Monday night game, Allen Lazard. What caught my eye with Lazar was Aarons confidence going to him on back to back plays with the game on the line. In a game where it looked like every receiver on the packers had stone hands, it was a breath of fresh air.

What we know:

6’ 5” 227 lbs

23 years old

4.55 40 time

38” vertical jump

Was recruited to Notre Dame, Stanford, and others but ultimately chose Iowa State where his father and brother both player. Athletic genes.

Started for the Cyclones as a true Freshmen.

Finished his college career 7 receptions and 678 yards away from breaking school records in both categories

Rodgers lobbied for him to get into the game in the 4^th quarter

What I think:

With Allison and Adams likely out this week for the packers, it will be the same group of stone handed receivers on the field for the packers this week against the Raiders. This could be the time that Lazard needs to prove himself on the field and earn a larger role with the offense moving forward. Allison and MVS have not been very sharp this year. When Allison returns I feel there might be opportunities for fresh young legs to work more in the mix IF he proves himself this week.

What I am looking forward to is if Rodgers continues to look his way this week. In Rodgers post game interview, he said that Lazard has been doing this all year in practice and dropped that touchdown right where it needed to be. They seem to have the chemistry and anyone that develops trust with Rodgers is worth a roster spot. Worth noting that Rodgers sits next to Lazard at meetings. Can’t be too many seats next to Rodgers in those team meetings…

Overall, this is a complete dart throw. But one that could pay off if he turns into the third option for Rodgers in that offense.

Happy Hunting and good luck this week!

Last week was a good week for the picks. Heading into Monday night, I was a perfect 14/14 relying on the Steelers to win at home vs the winless Dolphins to capture my 14 point pick and survive another week in the big pool. Never in my life had I picked every game correctly in a week and was quite nervous. I even texted friends early in the first quarter when Miami jumped out to an early lead to tell them I was kicking myself for not switching the pick to Miami before kickoff. (Seriously considered it, no way the football gods could let me be perfect.)

 Ahh but alas, the Dolphins have no intentions of winning a game and ran a boneheaded defense at the end of the half allowing the Steelers to score a long TD and bring the game to within 4 points. The Dolphins were to never score again and Pitt got the easy victory.

This week’s schedule has been the toughest for me to make a pick. Halfway through the season and I have used up many of the stronger teams with good matchups. That left me with 2 options pick the Packers in Carson,CA against the Chargers or the 49ers in Arizona on Thursday night. I opted to go with the latter.

The 49ers are the biggest favorite of the week and have looked unstoppable on defense. Add to that facing a first time NFL coach and rookie QB, it should be a no brainer. Right? Well anyways Thursday night games always seem to burn me, so I will be watching this one with my fingers crossed and a bottle by my side to ease the nerves.

It’s hard to believe that we are just a few weeks away from the end of the season. Only a few more chances to lock down that top spot in your season long pool.

But, if you have been using our picks all year, you should be at the top as it is. And if you haven’t, well, you’ll learn for next season I guess!

Week 15 – HERE WE GO!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN CAPS)

• 16 – BALTIMORE over New York Jets – The Jets have been looking solid lately…that will all come to a screeching halt this week.
  
  
• 15 – GREEN BAY over Chicago – Re-read what I just wrote but replace Jets with Bears.
  
  
• 14 – New England over CINCINNATI – Video taping…the Bengals? The Patriots are seriously just cheating for the fun of it at this point!
  
  
• 13 – SAN FRANCISCO over Atlanta –The 9ers confirmed their NFC dominance in New Orleans last week – a home game against the Falcons will be a nice breather for them.
  
  
• 12 – Seattle over CAROLINA – At the beginning of the year this could have been a potential NFC Championship preview. Now…not so much.
  
  
• 11 – KANSAS CITY over Denver – It’s odd to have a little doubt in my mind that I have the Chiefs too high against the Drew Lock-led Broncos.
  
  
• 10 – TENNESSEE over Houston – This will be part one of the Titans assertion as this year’s AFC South Champions…
  
  
• 9 – NEW ORLEANS over Indianapolis – …and this is part two! My BOLD PREDICTION for this week is that THE TITANS WILL WIN THE AFC SOUTH.
  
  
• 8 – Minnesota over LOS ANGELES CHARGERS – I would be more reluctant to put the Vikings so high in this road game…but with such a bad fan base, is there really such thing as a road game against the Chargers?
  
  
• 7 – OAKLAND over Jacksonville – It’s been a rough stretch for the Raiders which has taken them out of the playoff picture. This week, though, they’ll be pushed by the emotions of playing the last game in Oakland …well…until they move back in 15-20 years.
  
  
• 6 – PITTSBURGH over Buffalo – There are just so many reasons why this being a potential Game of the Week is a huge surprise – lucky for the Steelers the game is in Pittsburgh.
  
  
• 5 – DALLAS over Los Angeles Rams – I honestly don’t know what to say about the battle of disappointment.
  
  
• 4 – ARIZONA over Cleveland – Speaking of disappointment, a season full of disappointment will soon end for the Browns.
  
  
• 3 – Tampa Bay over DETROIT – Tampa is playing like a team that knows their season is over, but they have pride. The Lions are not.
  
  
• 2 – NEW YORK GIANTS over Miami – Eli almost pulled out a win in his return to the field last week. He’ll more than be able to handle it this week.
  
  
• 1 – WASHINGTON over Philadelphia – As we know, if we think the Redskins will win, we keep it on the one-point line.

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.

16 Point Lead

It seems that in Atlanta, no lead is safe. Most recently infamous for blowing a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI (which still fuels memes around the internet), the Falcons have now blown back-to-back games where they led by at least 16 points. Dan Quinn has achieved the impossible – he’s become less popular in Atlanta than Covid-19. In two consecutive possessions late in the 4^th quarter, the Falcons ran the ball just once and netted -4 yards total in those drives. The second drive of that sequence featured 3 straight incompletions with less than 5 minutes remaining in the game, burning off a whole 11 seconds. Perhaps it’s too early in the season to fire a coach, but I cannot imagine a seat that is hotter than Dan Quinn’s right now, especially considering his offense is playing well for 3.5 quarters of football every Sunday.

75 TDs

This offseason was all about letting Russ cook, and that’s exactly what he’s done. Russell Wilson is now the first NFL QB to throw for at least 4 TDs in each of his first three games of the season. If there was an MVP for September, he would be the unanimous choice. On the season, he already has 14 passing TDs, on pace for a Peyton Manning crushing 75 on the season (the current record sits at 55). Of course, Patrick Mahomes was on pace to break this record back in 2018, but only managed (“only”) 50 TDs. Wilson is slightly ahead of Mahomes’ pace – he was at 13 after 3 games, and only managed one over the next two weeks. I think it’s certainly plausible that Wilson can keep up a record-breaking pace for quite a while. To go along with this, he’s also the #1 player in fantasy football, already cracking 100 points on the season. #LetRussCook

12 Total TDs

Right on the heel of Wilson’s great start is Josh Allen taking the Bills to 3-0. On the season, Allen has 10 passing TDs, 2 rushing TDs, 1,038 passing yards and has totaled 94.92 fantasy points, good for 2^nd overall. If it was not for Wilson, then Allen might be at the top of the MVP discussion, alongside Aaron Rodgers – the last of the top QBs without a turnover on the season. Allen has shown some vast improvement this season. His first two years, his best completion rate was only 58.8%, but he currently sits at 71.1% on the season and has only thrown one interception so far. He’s already matched his TD total from his rookie season, and he’s halfway to matching 2019 through 3 games. Allen is perhaps the most improved player and is the kind of fantasy pick that will help people win leagues – Allen’s ADP put him at QB8 and was being drafted sometime in the 8^th round in most drafts.

260 Kicking Yards

One of my new favorite changes in 2020 for fantasy football is the ability to directly award kickers for their exact yardage, instead of truncating the number and just giving 3, 4, 5, etc. This allowed Stephen Gostkowski to really max out his score on Sunday, where he kicked 6 field goals for a total of 260 yards, and threw an extra point in there for good measure. Under the old scoring system, he would have had 25 points, but yesterday, he put up 27 points, which is good for 1^st place among kickers by nearly 10 points. His 27 points Sunday are more points than 8 of the top 20 kickers have scored all season long. I don’t often devote an entry in this column for a kicker, but perhaps more performances like this one will change that. Mason Crosby deserves an honorable mention. His 41.6 points on the season put him just behind Gostkowski, but his perfect 7 for 7 FGs and 13 for 13 XPs certainly deserve praise. Until next week, have fun picking a kicker – 8 of the top 13 kickers this week are owned in only 26% or less of Fleaflicker leagues.

-3.33 Points per Week

Usually, you want to stream your D/ST against a team that struggles, and more on that in a minute, but let’s first marvel at the team you do not want your D/ST to go against. In 3 weeks, the D/ST going up against the Green Bay Packers have scored -4, -3 and -3 points. The Packers have scored 36 points or more in every game so far, and have only given up one sack each of the last two weeks. Perhaps this information isn’t that helpful to you to win at fantasy football, but it’s certainly something to marvel at, and that’s the real point of this column. If you want points, start whoever is playing the Jets, like the Colts in Week 3, who put up 26 points from 3 turnovers and 2 TDs. Or stream whoever is going against the Eagles, who have seen Wentz give up 2 INTs in every game so far this season, to go along with 11 total sacks. It won’t get any better for the Eagles, who now face the 49ers, Steelers and Ravens in their next 3 games.