Week seven has officially passed us by in the NFL, and that means the eighth 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 considering 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
- Bryson Daily – Quarterback
- Harold Fannin – Tight End
NFL:
- Lamar Jackson – Quarterback
- Derrick Henry – Running Back
- Justin Jefferson – Wide Receiver
- George Kittle – Tight End
Ashton Jeanty is going to be fresh coming off of Boise State’s bye week, so he immediately jumps back into the top running back spot on the rankings. He’s been unbelievably efficient and effective this season, taking 126 season carries and turning them into 1,248 yards and 17 touchdowns. He averages 10 yards per carry and has been so dominant that he often gets pulled in the first half of games due to blowing opposing teams out. It’s unreal what he’s done.
We have Derrick Henry here for another week. Despite only getting 15 carries against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Henry averaged 11.3 yards per carry and turned those touches into 169 yards. He also had a 13-yard receiving touchdown to cap his night off. On the season now, he’s first in carries, and rushing yards, and tied for first in touchdowns while averaging 6.5 yards per carry behind this Baltimore Ravens offensive line.
Next, Nick Nash stays at the top again. Nash had another great day against Wyoming over the weekend. He saw 19 targets head in his direction, and he caught 10 of them for 98 yards and a touchdown. He had 15.8 fantasy points which was his second lowest total of the season, ahead of only a 15.4-point performance the week before. But still, he’s yet to go below 15 points in a game and has scored a touchdown in each matchup this season.
Justin Jefferson is probably the most consistent and reliable wide receiver in the league over the past few seasons. This weekend, he hauled in seven of eight targets for 81 yards and a touchdown. He’s now scored in all but one game this season and passed 80 receiving yards in all but one game. It doesn’t matter who his quarterback is, Jefferson is productive regardless. The same goes for the matchup because nobody can slow him down effectively.
At quarterback, we have a change in college football. It feels like we do this weekly, but Bryson Daily deserves a high ranking. He’s averaging the most fantasy points scored per game at the quarterback position and just had six touchdowns against ECU. How, you might be asking. Well, he has 138 rush attempts for 909 yards and 19 touchdowns, the most in the country. Couple that with 600 passing yards and seven more touchdowns without an interception.
As for tight ends, I’ll move Harold Fannin up the rankings. Fannin has been great this season, so it was only a matter of time before he got up here. He just had 10 receptions for 171 yards over the weekend, which is the norm for him. He’s received at least nine targets in every matchup, has only had one game where he’s finished below 100 receiving yards, and has four touchdowns in six contests. At tight end, you don’t often find similar production.
For the NFL, there’s no reason that George Kittle shouldn’t be the top tight end. He had six receptions for 92 yards in a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend. These are the numbers we’ve gotten used to with him this season. He’s scored five touchdowns in six games played, caught at least four passes in each game this season, and hasn’t had a game with under 40 receiving yards yet. Now, take that information and factor in the fact that the 49ers will be without Brandon Aiyuk for the season and Deebo Samuel for at least a week, and Kittle skyrockets these rankings. Genuinely, Lamar Jackson can win another MVP this season. He’s the best fantasy option in football in my mind. Against the Buccaneers, he completed 17 of 22 pass attempts with 281 yards and five touchdowns without a turnover. He also had nine rushes for 52 yards on the ground. He is now fifth in the league when it comes to passing yards, tied for second in passing touchdowns, and has only thrown two interceptions. And that doesn’t even factor in his 455 rush yards.
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:
- Tyler Huff
- Caleb Williams
- Josh Jacobs
- Amari Cooper
- Jaden Nixon
Bench:
- Damon Ward
- Nick Chubb
- Diontae Johnson
- Payton Thorne
- Dalton Schultz
Let’s start with the jersey picks and begin with Tyler Huff. Huff has a very enticing matchup on the way for him this weekend and he’s been great as of late. He’s yet to have a game under 27 fantasy points, yet he’s listed as being started in just 31 percent of leagues. He is incredibly consistent across the board, providing value with his arm and his legs. He’s a must-start until he cools off.
Next is Caleb Williams. Williams has been fantastic in the last two weeks of the season, but the bye week could make you forget about his hot streak. He’s thrown six touchdown passes in those two matchups and gets a Washington Commanders defense that has struggled in the secondary. If Jayden Daniels is playing on the other side, this could very easily turn into a shootout between the top two picks in the NFL Draft. Williams has a high upside.
Josh Jacobs deserves a spot on the jersey picks this week. He scored 16 plus points in each of his last two games, and the Green Bay Packers have a beautiful matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars. A team that has allowed the sixth-most fantasy points to running backs this season. Jacobs should have success on the ground, and through the air against a struggling opponent.
Amari Cooper only played 33 percent of the snaps for the Buffalo Bills in his first game with the team this weekend. Despite that, he had four receptions for 66 yards and a touchdown. With a plus matchup on the way against the Seattle Seahawks, and Cooper’s likely ability to get more acclimated with both the play sheet and his quarterback, he could be in store for a monster game.
And the last of the jersey picks is Jaden Nixon. Nixon has racked up at least 14 rush attempts in every game this season, and thanks to that, he’s surpassed 100 rushing yards in all but one game. Oh, and he’s scored nine touchdowns in five games. He’s really only had one down game all season when he rushed 14 times for 21 yards without a score. Aside from that, the Western Michigan Bronco has been irreplaceable for this offense.
Flipping over to the bench picks now, we have Damon Ward. Ward has been out with an injury lately, though his anticipated return date is this weekend, where he is questionable to play. If you’re thinking of throwing him in straight away, I might wait a week. It is likely better to see where he’s at physically, and if he can get some chemistry back straight away in the offense. Plus, it saves you from throwing him into the lineup and having him get ruled out at the last second.
Nick Chubb is in a tough spot this week. His return from injury has been incredible, but fantasy expectations should be minimalized here. The Cleveland Browns will face the Baltimore Ravens, a team that has given up the second-fewest rushing yards to opposing running backs, and Chubb hasn’t frequently been a receiving back. Chubb also only played 35 percent of snaps, so he will likely be brought along slowly. That combination is already enough to stay away from him this week, but to make it worse, Cleveland will be starting Jameis Winston. Winston isn’t a bad quarterback, though the Ravens should get an early lead and eliminate the possibility of Cleveland running.
Next, we have Diontae Johnson. I’ve been happy with what I’ve seen from Johnson since Andy Dalton became the quarterback, but this is a storm of bad news for the wideout this week. Not only will the team pivot back to Bryce Young, a quarterback that he’s shown no rapport with, but the Panthers will line up against the Denver Broncos. The Broncos boast one of the hottest defenses in the league at the moment and are likely to get Patrick Surtain back from injury. Johnson just is far too risky of a play all around.
Payton Thorne is better off on the bench this weekend as well. The Auburn quarterback scored over 20 points in two games this season, with another game at 17 fantasy points. However, his last two games have seen him total just 22 combined. And now, the Auburn Tigers have a very tough SEC matchup against Kentucky this weekend, limiting his ceiling once more. Keep him on the bench again.
Finally, we get to Dalton Schultz. I had high hopes for Schultz this season, but he’s disappeared completely. At the start of the season, it was expected due to Stefon Diggs coming in and Tank Dell returning from injury. With Nico Collins out for the past few weeks, Schultz hasn’t seen any uptick in fantasy value whatsoever. He had just one catch last weekend and has failed to get over 40 receiving yards in a game this year. Stay away from him until he proves any type of reliability.
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 – Alonza Barnett – 40.24 points
- RB – Ashton Jeanty – 27.40 points
- WR – Tre Harris – 17.44 points
- TE – Harold Fannin – 12.89 points
NFL:
- QB – Lamar Jackson – 24.05 points
- RB – Derrick Henry – 15.43 points
- WR – Tyreek Hill – 12.53 points
- TE – George Kittle – 8.57 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.