Fantasy Football's Ultimate Riddle

by Peter Overzet

1 month ago

In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Robinhood:

Can you help me wrap my head around something?

The Kansas City Chiefs—yes, the defending Super Bowl champs, those ones—are 6-0 on the year.

They have one of the greatest QBs of all time, one of the greatest TEs of all time, and one of the greatest coaches of all time.

And yet they are a complete fantasy wasteland …

Outside of Kareem Hunt (22-78-2)—who wasn’t even on the team a month ago—they are completely useless from a fantasy perspective.

Noah Gray (4-66) led the team in receptions yesterday. Neither Xavier Worthy nor Travis Kelce cleared more than 20 yards. Mahomes tossed 2 INTs and threw for zero TDs, which means he’s now thrown more INTs (8) this year than TDs (6).

What in the world is going on here? Yes, the defense is really good and Andy Reid gets bored easily, but this still blows my mind.

They’ve perfected the most boring, ho-hum brand of winning football imaginable. And as someone who doesn’t root for laundry or dynasties, and exclusively cares about fantasy points, it disgusts me.

For more crankiness, check out my Week 7 takeaways piece down below …

What else is in today’s newsletter?

Pete puts a bow on Week 7’s main slate of games.
Watercooler: Injury updates

RBs IN, WRs OUT?

by Pete Overzet

It's time for my weekly recap column where I round up six things—the good, the bad, and the ugly—that caught my eye on the Sunday main slate.

This week's edition features more tilt than usual. Let's get to it …

💪 The Robust RB thesis hits

If you started your 2024 draft with a bunch of RBs, you probably had an incredible Week 7.

Take a look at the stat lines from these top RBs yesterday:

Jahmyr Gibbs (30 points, 2 TDs)
Saquon Barkley (25.7, 1 TD)
Joe Mixon (25.4, 2 TDs)
Bijan Robinson (21.8, 1 TD)
Kenneth Walker (22.3, 2 TDs)
Kyren Williams (19.6, 2 TDs)
Aaron Jones (19.1, 1 TD)
Josh Jacobs (17.7, 1 TD)

Gibbs took advantage of a few extra touches when Knuckles got banged up and never looked back … Barkley had the ultimate revenge day, punishing his former team with big runs and a truck stick for good measure … Despite having a Ferrari in the garage, Bobby Slowik has zero interest in taking it for a spin. That creates a frustrating dynamic for everyone other than Mixon managers … Bijan and Walker traded blows in Atlanta despite Ken having a "birthday tummy ache" ... Kyren now has nine straight games with a TD. Incredible … Jones returned from a multi-week absence, but that hammy didn't slow him down whatsoever … And last but not least, Jacobs scored his first receiving TD of his career.

As a Zero RB bro, that was a tough section to write. Surely, it will get better, right? Right?!

Wrong …

👻 Um, what happened to the WRs?

If the RBs were hogging all of the fantasy production on Sunday, you can probably guess what that meant for the WRs. Outside of a few notable names at the top–Amon-Ra St. Brown, Justin Jefferson, and A.J. Brown–the position was littered with major letdowns.

Let's take a quick stroll through the graveyard…

Tank Dell, who is responsible for Grandma being left in a cage, had 0 catches and one brutal TD drop.

Devonta Smith had 1 catch for … checks notes … -2 yards.

Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined for 2 catches and 19 yards. Tua can't come back soon enough.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba threw for almost four times as many yards (35) than he caught (9).

Diontae Johnson had 1 catch for 17 yards. I want a refund on the "garbage time" I thought I was purchasing.

Jameson Williams had -4 yards on 1 catch. If you played him in DFS like I did, don't look up Kalif Raymond's stat line.

It's not even worth mentioning DeAndre Hopkins (1, -2) at this point.

Ok, Pete, enough already. How about some good news? Sorry, not yet …

4 More Week 7 Takeaways

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