Week 13 has officially passed us by in the NFL, and that means the 14th week of college football has also. It’s fantasy football time, and today we are going to be talking about weekly strategies, player insights, rankings, and projections. The main premise here is that you should be taking into account all of your player analysis and combining it with insights, rankings, and projections. You never want to leave out information in favor of another, just take it all in and make the best educated decisions you can make on each roster choice. Let’s get right into it by starting with something that many fantasy managers use these days, rankings, and not just generic rankings, but rankings for the season opener.
Weekly Rankings
Weekly rankings are awfully important to figure out the correct rosters to play each week in fantasy football, especially a Campus to Canton league.
College And NFL Rankings
College:
- Ashton Jeanty – Running Back
- Nick Nash – Wide Receiver – Wide Receiver
- John Mateer – Quarterback
- Harold Fannin – Tight End
NFL:
- Josh Allen – Quarterback
- Saquon Barkley – Running Back
- Ja’Marr Chase – Wide Receiver
- Brock Bowers– Tight End
Another week, another Ashton Jeanty standout performance. The superstar running back just handled a whopping 37 carries over the weekend and turned them into 226 yards and a touchdown. On the season, he’s rushed the ball 312 times for 2,288 yards and 28 touchdowns. Boise State is heavily relying upon Jeanty to keep their offense trucking forward. It doesn’t matter about the matchup, it doesn’t matter how many defenders stack the box waiting for him, he is still going to put up numbers’ week in and week out.
Saquon Barkley went toe-to-toe with Derrick Henry, and he proved that he deserves the top spot on the list over his counterpart. Barkley took 23 rushes and went for 107 yards and a touchdown. He also had two receptions for 10 additional yards. His explosiveness broke the game open for the Philadelphia Eagles in the end, and the consistency that we’ve seen from him on a weekly basis makes this a no-brainer at the moment.
We’re going to go back to Nick Nash this week after he got back to business. Two weeks ago, he had a strange anomaly of just one reception for nine scoreless yards. This week, he came back to form with 17 targets, eight receptions, 91 receiving yards, and a touchdown. Coming off a game in which he was held out of the end zone for the first time, it was interesting to see how he would respond. Suffice it to say, he responded well, scoring twice to make up for last week and taking in over 15 targets for the third time in the last five games.
I’m going to be keeping Ja’Marr Chase at the top of the receiver rankings for another week. Chase didn’t have a ridiculously explosive week, though he did reel in six receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown for the Cincinnati Bengals. The superstar wideout has been one of the few truly reliable weapons at receiver in the NFL. With Joe Burrow playing as well as any quarterback in the league, Chase is going to be a premier difference-maker in fantasy.
At quarterback, John Mateer will take the top spot again. This was one of the few games of the season in which Mateer didn’t perform strongly in fantasy, and even still, he dropped 22.8 points. The previous four weeks never saw him dip below 34 fantasy points, to put this into perspective. The Washington State quarterback doesn’t deserve to get knocked down on his bad day, especially considering that it is another quarterback’s dream fantasy performance.
For tight end, Harold Fannin is going to remain here. Fannin had only five points, the lowest of his past five games. However, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that he is going to get targeted a ton. He has seen at least 12 targets in each of the last three games, and at least nine targets in each of the past five. He’s had at least six receptions in each of the last five games also. No matter what statistics you look at regarding Fannin, you can see why he is the best fantasy tight end in college football.
For the NFL, we’re going to switch to Brock Bowers, the rookie phenom. George Kittle had his worst fantasy day of the season this weekend, having just one catch for seven yards in a snow-filled San Francisco 49ers blowout loss. Bowers, on the other hand, couldn’t have performed any better. He had 10 receptions for 140 yards and a touchdown, even picking up a carry for an extra two yards. Las Vegas is doing everything in its power to throw him the football more often, and it’s starting to pay off in a big way.
Finally, at quarterback, I’m going to roll with Josh Allen. Lamar Jackson had a strong game of his own, but Allen did something special. He was able to record both a passing and receiving touchdown on the same play, helping him total four touchdowns on the afternoon. He completed 13 of his 17 passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns, rushing three times for 18 yards and another touchdown, then that aforementioned trick play for a fourth touchdown. Allen has made it work no matter who is catching the football for him. That isn’t going to stop now.
Jersey And Bench (Start/Sit)
You all know the drill here, each week there will be players that you want to start, and players that you want to sit. Below are a couple of options and some background information on why you should do either of the following.
Jersey/Bench Picks
Jersey:
Carson Beck
Baker Mayfield
Kyren Williams
Jakobi Meyers
Jarquez Hunter
Bench:
Geno Smith
Gus Edwards
Deebo Samuel
Jaylen Waddle
Tucker Kraft
Let’s start with the jersey picks and begin with Carson Beck. For those of you who have college fantasy continuing at this point in the season, Beck could be an intriguing start during the SEC Championship game. Beck has recorded over 28 fantasy points in each of the last three games and has thrown a total of 11 passing touchdowns in that same span. The signal-caller has some momentum, so it’ll be interesting to see how he carries that forward.
Next is Baker Mayfield. Mayfield has only thrown two touchdown passes in his last three games, which is rather surprising given his track record with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the return of Mike Evans. Still, he is going up against the Las Vegas Raiders this week, a team that has given up the seventh-most passing touchdowns on the season. With the Buccaneers desperately needing a win, Mayfield will likely need to air it out early to make that happen.
Kyren Williams is another must-start simply due to how safe it is. Williams completely dominates the backfield despite the Los Angeles Rams drafting Blake Corum, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. Williams has 12 touchdowns this season, and heading into last week had all of the team’s rushing touchdowns. He’s also only had one game with single-digit fantasy points up to this point in the year.
Jakobi Meyers has flown under the radar in terms of fantasy numbers, but that doesn’t make him any less impactful. He’s averaged a little over 15 fantasy points per game since Week 3, and he’s been able to go over 18 points on three different occasions. The big thing that kept holding him back was quarterback play, and Aidan O’Connell has looked impressive lately, throwing for 340 yards against the Kansas City Chiefs. If you’re in need of a veteran wideout, Meyers could fit the bill.
And the last of the jersey picks is Jarquez Hunter. Auburn is getting themselves ready for an Iron Bowl clash this weekend, and Hunter continues to be a primary factor in their offense. The running back has received double-digit carries in each of the last five games, surpassing 100 rushing yards in three of those contests and 50 in every single one of them.
Flipping over to the bench picks now, we have Geno Smith. The Seattle Seahawks rank fifth in passing attempts throughout 2024, yet Geno Smith has only thrown multiple touchdown passes in two games this season. Add to that he’s going against the Arizona Cardinals, who held him to just 12 fantasy points during their last meeting, and Geno doesn’t look like a great fantasy option this weekend.
Next, is Gus Edwards. J.K. Dobbins just landed on Injured Reserve, which is a shame given the season he’s having. Fantasy managers might be keen to note that this opens the door for Gus Edwards. Edwards played over 50 percent of the Los Angeles Chargers snaps last week with a chance at an increased opportunity. Instead, he had just six carries and one target which totaled 33 yards. He isn’t very explosive right now and has to face a stout Chiefs front seven.
Deebo Samuel is a bit tough to add here due to the immense talent that he possesses. Unfortunately, he just isn’t the same player that he used to be. At least not right now. In five straight games, he’s gone under 13 fantasy points, and in each of his last three, he’s failed to pass seven fantasy points. Now, he has to go up against the Chicago Bears, a defense that has given up the third-fewest fantasy points per game to wide receivers. Samuel might get some extra carries at running back thanks to the injuries. Although let’s face it, that doesn’t drastically boost his stock given what we’ve seen lately.
It’s time to talk about Jaylen Waddle as well. Waddle had 28 fantasy points in Week 12, his first major fantasy performance for the Miami Dolphins the entire season. Unfortunately, that hasn’t carried over in future weeks. He had 11 fantasy points on Thanksgiving, which isn’t terrible, but it still wasn’t a great day despite being much better than what we’ve seen from him in the past this year. Going against the New York Jets next doesn’t give him a high ceiling. They have given up the fewest fantasy points per game to wideouts this year.
Finally, we get to Tucker Kraft. Kraft is heavily reliant upon scoring touchdowns, and when that doesn’t happen, his fantasy production leaves a lot to be desired. He’s scheduled to go up against a Detroit Lions team that has given up the fewest fantasy points per game to tight ends this season. The last time these two met, Kraft had just 34 receiving yards.
Projections
Projections are numbers that estimate how many fantasy points a specific player might get in a given week. They can vary depending on the situation or matchup and need to be monitored weekly to get a good understanding of what experts think of them.
Weekly Projections
College:
QB – Bryson Daily – 34.38 points
RB – Ashton Jeanty – 30.05 points
WR – Ricky White – 14.99 points
TE – Terrance Carter – 7.74 points
NFL:
QB – Josh Allen – 25.59 points
RB – Saquon Barkley – 17.17 points
WR – Ja’Mar Chase – 12.31 points
TE – Brock Bowers – 9.19 points
These are the players who are projected to garner the most fantasy points at their position in both college and the NFL. These numbers are calculated by basically estimating the stats that a player might have given their track record and upcoming matchup. If they have an easier matchup and are historically good against that specific team, the projections will be a little higher. If it might be a blowout, the projection might be even higher than that. The reason why it is important to understand these projections is that if you’re ever stuck wondering what to do, they could give you an idea of how a player might perform. Let’s say you can’t decide who to start between two wide receivers, but one is estimated to be 10 points more than the other. That number alone can indicate that the higher projected receiver could be in line for a significantly better day, and you can feel comfortable starting them over your other option. They aren’t guaranteed to be accurate every week, and they do change quite often, because, at the end of the day, they are simply projections, but it’s a good place to start making lineup decisions.
With all of that being said, it is critical to stay on top of your weekly strategies and pay close attention to rankings, and player insights. You never know when you might be caught up between two players and need to figure out how to break the tie in your mind. That is exactly where rankings and projected points play a factor, in helping lay all of the information out for you in an easy-to-read format. Each week is going to be an exciting time for everybody, so before we get ahead of ourselves, just remember to double-check your starting lineups and make sure that you’re happy with the players you have locked in at the moment. I heavily recommend you take some of our listed rankings into consideration, and also for you to check out other projections and rankings as well to get a clear vision of how each week might play out in both college and the NFL.