DALLAS — For some, this week is simply a prelude to Cowboys-Jaguars in Jacksonville. For many others, it’s all about preparation for a holiday next week. Yes, I suppose I am aware of both of those things although, like millions of others, my mind is not on a particular game or forgotten shopping chores.
It might say Week 15 on the NFL calendar, but it’s all about the start of the fantasy football playoffs to us.
We go to work, we hug our loved ones, we get hooked on “Don’t Pick Up the Phone” on Netflix just to blend in with the rest of the world. Our frazzled brains are elsewhere. If we don’t win this week, our fantasy season is over and that’s too disturbing a reality to even think about.
Maybe you tried to maintain your allegiance to the Cowboys through your fantasy squad. If you locked onto both Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard, well, there wasn’t any formal announcement from the club, but I hope you started playing Pollard about six weeks ago. That’s when the more explosive back finally took control although Zeke, to his credit, has managed to keep hunting the end zone on a regular basis.
I hope you didn’t give up on CeeDee Lamb after his streak of non-100 yard games reached a full season at the end of October. I was a little suspect of the predictions that he would blossom as a No. 1 without Amari Cooper here, and he certainly didn’t deserve to be drafted ahead of Tyreek Hill or Davante Adams after they changed teams. And that happened in my league and many others. But at least Lamb finally started delivering for you a month ago, even if the Houston game was a disappointment.
I can only hope, for your sake, you didn’t come too strong with the Dak Prescott love in September. The hand injury forced him to miss five games, of course. But he has played half a season now, and while there are 15 quarterbacks with multiple 300-yard passing games including Houston’s Davis Mills and the Jets’ Mike White (Patrick Mahomes has eight), Dak remains stuck on zero.
The Cowboys’ depth at tight end (along with an early injury) has made Dalton Schultz less than he should have been for fantasy owners. But those 10 targets and 87 yards against Houston were at least a positive sign heading into this week’s playoffs.
With a little luck, you have enjoyed a season like my startling experience in a 12-team national “experts“ league in which I basically blew off quarterbacks (not because of any brilliance, but because I didn’t realize it was a “super flex” league that allows two quarterbacks per week, causing the early draft rush). I realized I was too late to the QB party, so I rolled with the Chargers’ Austin Ekeler in the first round, KC’s Travis Kelce in the second and Cleveland’s Nick Chubb in the third before adding Seattle’s D.K. Metcalf, Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins and Cooper as receivers. Suddenly, my quarterback play wasn’t that important, and the Lions’ Jared Goff turned out pretty good, anyway, so the team cruised to 12-2 and has a playoff bye.
More likely, you have a mixed bag of players that is causing you to spend unwarranted time on lineup changes. That is the more normal fantasy experience, and the one I have dealt with in my traditional 10-team league. With that low number of teams, one should never be wrestling with whether to pair the Rams’ Cam Akers or Miami’s Raheem Mostert alongside Kansas City rookie Isiah Pacheco in the backfield, but that’s where we are right now. Losing sleep over that while pondering Detroit’s D.J. Chark vs. the untrustworthy Tee Higgins of Cincinnati at receiver is not what fantasy dreams are made of.
With the injury toll high and NFL team scoring down, this has been a particularly challenging year for fantasy players. Who knew that the Broncos backfield battle of Javonte Williams vs. Melvin Gordon could turn into a thing as ugly as Latavius Murray vs. Marlon Mack (with a splash of Mike Boone thrown in there somewhere)? For that matter, who knew that Russell Wilson couldn’t play anymore or that his former Seattle backup Geno Smith really, really could?
Why weren’t we warned that last year’s leading rusher, the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor, would not be in the top 15 this season but Josh Jacobs, playing on a bad Raiders team now and nowhere near the top 15 a year ago, would lead the league with 1,400 yards?
On the other hand, I love the fact that tight end Evan Engram — so many years a disappointment with the Giants — carried some of you into the playoffs last week with an 11-catch target, 162-yard, two-touchdown game for the Jaguars. That’s what the fantasy world is all about.
That and Cam Akers going crazy in Green Bay Monday night …
