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.

398 Passing Yards

Kaepernick lead the league in passing yards this week, stopping just shy of 400 yards. As usual, we see the same patterns with the leading quarterbacks - their teams went 2-6. Meanwhile, rushing leaders went 6-2. So sure, Kaepernick looks better than Blaine Gabbert, but he still isn't winning any games. The 49ers haven't won since their opening game against the Rams. They've given up at least 33 points in all but one of those losses, so maybe the QB wasn't exactly the problem in the first place.

261 Yards from Scrimmage

Melvin Gordon is now the leading fantasy RB on the year after having a monster game against the Titans. Gordon had 196 rushing yards and 65 receiving yards against the team that is still the 7th best against opposing RBs. With 11 total touchdowns this year, Gordon has redeemed himself from his disappointing rookie season.

8 Touchdowns

Mike Evans leads all receivers with 8 TDs after grabbing two more on Thursday night. He's the only real threat on offense right now for Jameis Winston, and has 103 targets on the year already, on track for over 200 on the season. He's only got 55 receptions, mostly because he's always getting creamed by the other team, as also seen on Thursday night. Evans is practicing again on Monday, so he's on track to play, but needs to clear the concussion process first.

2 Defensive Touchdowns

San Diego needed a pair of return touchdowns on defense to beat the Titans. They still only managed 14 fantasy points for their DST (each score netted them 8 points each). Giving up 35 points can be rough on anyone's performance. To put that in perspective, other teams that have scored two defensive TDs this year: Week 1, Vikings, 21 pts. Week 2 Broncos, 22 pts. Week 3 Chiefs 35 pts.

5 Fourth Quarter Comebacks

Matt Stafford and the Lions have 5 wins this year, all of them fourth-quarter comebacks. Every loss that they've had has been by one score, so I suppose he's just slacking off. Stafford is the 6th highest scoring QB this season, but the Lions just have not been able to put a good game together from start to finish. They get a bye this week and will ride high on this past win, but the Vikings get a rematch on Thanksgiving, so that should be a fun one to watch.

Only four more games left in the fantasy regular season before playoffs! This is the time to either make that final push for the fantasy postseason or if you're sitting pretty that final push first-round bye week. There will also be some managers that have given up on their teams at this point; hopefully, you're lucky enough to play against them. FOUR teams are on bye this week; Colts, Raiders, Bills and Lions. Good luck!

Note: all waiver picks listed here will have only been owned in 50% or less of Yahoo! leagues at the time of publication.

Quarterback

Trevor Siemian (DEN) - 14% owned - Siemian has not been great this year, but if you're in a pinch he does get to play against the New Orleans Saints this week.  The Saints are allowing a league worst 300 yards per game to opposing passers.

Honorable mention: Joe Flacco (BAL) - 25% owned

Running Back

Dion Lewis (NE) - 39% owned - Lewis has resumed practicing and is eligible to return off PUP this week. It still remains to be seen if he will immediately replace James White as the passing back or not, but he's worth an add this week to see how it shakes out due to his high upside.  

Rob Kelley (WAS) - 30% owned - The Redskins are coming off their bye week and Jay Gruden has already announced that Kelley will be the lead back after his impressive week 8 performance. I still think there will be some kind of time share with Matt Jones returning, but Jones looks to be one bad play away from being benched in favor of Kelley.

Honorable mentions: James Starks (GB) - 19% owned, Kapri Bibbs (DEN) - 6% owned

Wide Receiver

J.J. Nelson (ARZ) - 15% owned - Nelson was a recommended add and stash last week through the Cardinals week 9 bye after he posted 79 yards and two touchdowns on 8 catches in week 8. Bruce Arians has gone as far to say that Nelson will be a starting wide receiver in their offense moving forward.

Steve Smith SR (BAL) - 50% owned - Smith is officially off the injury report and draws a great matchup against a terrible Browns passing defense. Expect the Ravens to be throwing a lot in this game which means Smith should be grabbed and played if available.

Honorable mentions: Kenny Britt (LA) - 50% owned, Rishard Matthews (TEN) - 30% owned

Tight End

There are a lot of TEs all just above 50% owned in Yahoo! leagues that I would consider decent plays this week so I'll just list them in order of how I like them and one should be available for you!

Dennis Pitta (BAL) - 55% owned

Zach Miller (CHI) - 53% owned

Zach Ertz (PHI) - 56% owned

Cameron Brate (TB) - 54% owned

Defense/Special Teams

San Diego Chargers (SD) - 39% owned - The Chargers are up against the Dolphins in week 10.  The Dolphins strength lately has been their running game, but the Chargers are only allowing an average of 85 yards per game to opposing rushers and have forced 5 fumbles over their past 4 games.

Week 10 is here, and if you're in one of my fantasy leagues, this means Rivalry Week! This probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but for me it's 3 opportunities to beat Dave. Now you're excited, right? Here are our consensus rankings, basically the mid-point of our fantasy football rankings.

This week, make sure you get Carson Palmer into your lineup against the 49ers. On the other side in that game, put DuJuan Harris in if Carlos Hyde sits out again. At receiver, Stefon Diggs and Mike Wallace are both guys that need to be starting for you. Finally, Jason Witten is having a little renaissance right now, get in on it before it goes away.

We are now at double digit weeks in the 2016 season. Now we should have a strong idea as to what these teams are really made of.

The Raiders are legit this year and apparently the Panthers are not. The Lions are always still in the game and the Browns, well, at least they are able to make it to the stadium to play the game.

Week 10 – HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN ALL CAPS)

14 – ARIZONA over San Francisco – This is a lot more of having no confidence in the 9ers on the road than having confidence in the Cardinals. That will be the theme for a lot of games this week.

13 – NEW ENGLAND over Seattle – A rematch from the Super Bowl of a few years ago and the Seahawks don’t even have Marshawn Lynch to not hand the ball off to this time.

12 – BALTIMORE over Cleveland – The Ravens showed signs of life against the Steelers last week. Now they get an extra bye week.

11 – TAMPA BAY over Chicago – The Ex-Lovie Bowl will go to the home team.

10 – NEW YORK JETS over Los Angeles – Having no confidence in the Rams rather than confidence in the Jets.

9 – Green Bay over TENNESSEE – Aaron Rodgers’ post-game rant last week had a bit of a R-E-L-A-X feel to it.

8 – WASHINGTON over Minnesota – Minnesota has hit a big wall. The way they lost last week to the Lions may have been too deflating to come back from.

7 – NEW YORK GIANTS over Cincinnati – The Giants have looked impressive as of late. I don’t think the Bengals have enough to stop their momentum on Monday Night.

6 – Atlanta over PHILADELPHIA – Carson Wentz could be a Matt Ryan at some point. But Matt Ryan is a Matt Ryan right now.

5 – Kansas City over CAROLINA – Carolina won’t get to play the Rams every week. My BOLD PREDICTION for this week is that AFTER MAKING THE SUPER BOWL, THE PANTHERS WILL FINISH LAST IN THE NFC SOUTH.

4 – Denver over NEW ORLEANS – The Broncos need this road win to keep up with the Raiders and Chiefs.

3 – SAN DIEGO over Miami – The AFC West’s “other” team hasn’t really played like an “other” team as of late.

2 – PITTSBURGH over Dallas – This could be the game of the week. The Cowboys streak could come to an end in the Steel City.

1 – JACKSONVILLE over Houston – After being one of the off-season winners, the Jags find themselves back in the “put them on the one-point line if you think they will win” category.