Week 11 has officially passed us by in the NFL, and that means the 12th 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
- John Mateer – Quarterback
- Tyler Warren – Tight End
NFL:
- Joe Burrow – Quarterback
- Joe Mixon – Running Back
- Ja’Marr Chase – Wide Receiver
- Brock Bowers – Tight End
Ashton Jeanty can’t be stopped, no matter what defense he goes up against. All you can hope to do is slow him down, and even that results in him getting over 150 yards from scrimmage. Last week, he had 32 rushes for 159 yards and three touchdowns. On the season, he’s scored 27 times, rushed for 1,893 yards, and taken 256 handoffs. He’s unstoppable at the running back position and far and away the best player that the NCAA has to offer.
Derrick Henry is finally going to get bumped down here because Joe Mixon is on a tear at the moment. He’s missed a couple of games this season, but when he’s healthy, he has played like the best in the NFL. Last weekend saw him take 20 carries and turn them into 109 yards and three touchdowns. He’s scored in all but one game that he’s played this season, and the game in which he didn’t score saw him get hurt early on and miss the remainder of the contest. In about seven full games, Mixon has around 160 carries for 750 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Nick Nash had another strong showing. Despite a loss to Boise State, Nash was efficient and effective. He had 15 targets, bringing in nine of them for 126 yards and a touchdown. He’s seen target shares of 14, 19, 15, 14, and 15 in each of his last five outings. You can rely upon him to get involved in the offense no matter what matchup lays in front of him, and on top of that, he’s the NCAA leader with 1,282 yards and 14 receiving touchdowns.
It’s very difficult to move Ja’Marr Chase down from the top spot in the rankings considering what he did for the second straight week. Last week, he had 11 receptions on 17 targets for 264 yards and three touchdowns. This weekend, he had 13 targets, seven receptions for 75 yards, and two more touchdowns. He’s clearly got his chemistry on tap with Joe Burrow right now, and with how bad the Cincinnati Bengals defense is, Chase will have to keep scoring for this team to be close.
At quarterback, John Mateer is going to take over the top spot again. Mateer had scored over 34 fantasy points in four straight games, and just recently dropped 43.5 over the weekend. He’s been able to get involved in the run game on a weekly basis and has displayed an ability to run up his passing yardage total. He threw for 375 yards and four touchdowns in his last game, and he’s averaged 35 fantasy points a week since the beginning of the year.
For tight end, Tyler Warren is deserving of recognition. Warren just had eight receptions on eight targets for 127 yards and a touchdown against Purdue. The week before, he had eight receptions on 11 targets for 75 yards. He is consistently garnering at least five targets a game, which is impressive for the tightend position. Warren has also scored five touchdowns throughout the season, increasing his value even further.
For the NFL, we’re going to switch things up at tight end, going with a younger option, Brock Bowers. Bowers had a monstrous performance over the weekend, taking in 13 receptions for 126 yards and a touchdown. He’s seen at least five targets in every single game except for two, which is wildly impressive for a rookie. The Las Vegas Raiders, since trading Davante Adams, have allowed Bowers to step into thetop receiving option on this offense.
Well, I think that it’s only right for Joe Burrow to step higher up on this list right alongside Chase. Burrow has thrown 12 touchdowns in the last three games, and SOMEHOW, the Bengals have only won one of those games. Burrow has also surpassed 250 passing yards in each of those contests, while only throwing one interception. He’s up to 27 touchdowns and four interceptions across the entire season, and eventually, the Bengals are going to start winning games thanks to his excellence.
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:
Brendon Lewis
Justin Herbert
Brian Robinson
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Bryson Washington
Bench:
Josh Hoover
Nick Chubb
Jaylen Waddle
Emeka Egbuka
Tucker Kraft
Let’s start with the jersey picks and begin with Brendon Lewis. Lewis might not be considered the most explosive fantasy quarterback in college football, though he has been consistent. That is a strong value to have in fantasy, and Lewis has been able to record at least 20 fantasy points in each of the last six games. He’s broken 35 points twice in that span as well. I like his chances to perform well once again, even if he fails to surpass 35 points.
Next is Justin Herbert. Herbert has averaged 22 fantasy points per game in his last four contests, and this weekend he’s going to be playing the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore’s defense has been great against therun, and extremely poor against the pass. They’ve allowed the third-most fantasy points per game, most passing yards, and second-most touchdowns to quarterbacks so far this season. Given how great he’s played lately, I think Herbert is good enough to start here.
Brian Robinson should also be a must-start this week. The Washington Commanders running back had a tough matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles last weekend and found a way to get all of the goal-line work. Now, he plays the Dallas Cowboys, a defense that surrendered three touchdowns to Joe Mixon and
the Houston Texans less than a week ago. Robinson is a bruising back who always seems to churn out yards on a high-powered offense, that isn’t going to change.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is an important start this week. In his last two games, JSN has racked up 24 targets and has caught 17 of those for 290 yards and two touchdowns. He’s averaging 30 fantasy points per game in this span, which is significantly better than what we’ve seen from him throughout his career up to this point. It feels like we’ve really hit the turning point for JSN in this Seattle Seahawks offense, and
fantasy managers of his couldn’t be any happier.
And the last of the jersey picks is Bryson Washington. The reason I’m looking to start Washington again is because sometimes, you have to ride the hot hand. In the last two games, Washington has scored 45 and 42 fantasy points. He’s rushed the ball over 40 times in that span and has come away with 319 yards and
seven touchdowns. Why not stick with the Baylor running back until he cools off?
Flipping over to the bench picks now, we have Josh Hoover. The TCU quarterback hasn’t been explosive lately. He’s failed to score over 30 fantasy points in a single game since September 21st and has gone
under the 20-point mark in three of his last five contests. He hasn’t been able to provide any rushing value and is heavily reliant upon his passing numbers. I would stay away from him for this weekend, even with heavy volume it just doesn’t seem good enough to trust.
Next, is Nick Chubb. Chubb had a wonderful matchup last weekend, yet didn’t do much of anything with that. He had just five fantasy points on 11 touches and has only averaged six fantasy points per contest
since returning to the field. Granted, he is coming off a gruesome injury and the Cleveland Browns offensive line has been underwhelming, to say the least, but the facts remain the same. Chubb just isn’t fantasy-worthy at the moment, especially this week against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Sadly, Jaylen Waddle appears on the list again. Waddle has been unreasonably disappointing in fantasy this season, both with and without Tua Tagovailoa. He’s failed to record double-digit fantasy points since the season opener, and he has had three or fewer targets in each of the last five games. That is simply wild to think about considering what he’s been able to accomplish throughout his career already. You’d like to imagine that he’d improve eventually, but until that happens, just leave him off the starting lineup.
Emeka Egbuka is up next on the bench picks for the week. Ohio State had a dominant 31-7 win against Northwestern, but the game plan didn’t include Egbuka. He had just two receptions on four targets for 25 scoreless yards. This was the fourth straight week that he’s gone under 10 fantasy points, despite being started in 90 percent of fantasy leagues. His yardage totals in the last four games have gone like this, 20, 31, 10, and now 25. He’s just not been consistent due to how much talent is on this Ohio State offense. We’re getting to the point where it’s hard to trust him in the starting lineup.
Finally, we have Tucker Kraft. Kraft was invisible a week ago against the Chicago Bears. He had just one target and zero receptions in the afternoon. This has been a concerning trend lately, with him averaging three targets per game on his last five matchups. When he isn’t able to find the end zone, his fantasy value has plummeted. The matchup against the San Francisco 49ers doesn’t look good for him to bounce back, with them giving up the fourth-fewest yards to tight ends all season.
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 – Hajj-Malik Williams – 34.74 points
RB – Dylan Sampson – 27.09 points
WR – DT Sheffield – 18.53 points
TE – Harold Fannin – 15.05 points
NFL:
QB – Lamar Jackson – 24.15 points
RB – Derrick Henry – 16.56 points
WR – Nico Collins – 11.28 points
TE – Travis Kelce – 10.31 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.