Fantasy Football: Dynasty Recap Week 12 2021 - Big Game for Big Players

Recapping the NFL games over the weekend for dynasty fantasy football teams. What all happened and how can you push for the fantasy football playoffs?

Author:
Casey Birch
Publish date:
Nov 30, 2021 6:00 AM EST

Dynasty Fantasy Football Recap Week 12 2021 NFL Season

Recapping the NFL games over the weekend for dynasty fantasy football teams. What all happened and how can you push for the fantasy football playoffs?

Week twelve could be summed up by exploring the concept of the "haves" and the "have nots." If a manager started Leonard Fournette, there's a good chance that they walked away with a win this week. If an owner played an opponent with Leonard Fournette, there's a good chance they walked away with a loss. To compound matters, all of Fournette's production completely sapped the potential fantasy points from Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and even Tom Brady to a degree. This doesn't involve any actionable intel, as fantasy football managers should start every one of those players next week. That said, it does bring to light the concept that fantasy football is mostly a matter of luck. Who could have predicted that DeAndre Swift would go down at the beginning of the Lions game with an injury, completely torpedoing the chances of almost every manager that started him? These random occurrences happen. Dynasty owners should still avoid chasing the random outliers. A team needs to be able to withstand an injury or two and an unexpected loss or two.

Tennessee Who?

The title of this section isn't a metaphor, a joke, or some allusion. It's a legitimate question. Who is playing for Tenessee these days? Ryan Tannehill still stands as their not-so-wonderful field general. Let's not besmirch his name completely; Tannehill is useful if the situation is right. Unfortunately, the situation isn't right. The team hasn't been right for weeks and is not getting any better. The Titans have lost Derrick Henry for the season and Julio Jones, A.J. Brown, and Marcus Johnson to the injured reserve. The latter three have a chance to be back before the end of the season, but maybe not before the fantasy season is over. If they do return, it may be in the midst of the fantasy playoffs. Against New England this week, the only running backs to see significant snaps were Dontrell Hilliard and D'Onta Foreman, who were not even on the team to start the season. The receiving corps was led by Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Cody Hollister, and Dez Fitzpatrick. While this group of position players surrounds Tannehill, it may be best to bench him for fantasy purposes. From the running back standpoint, both Foreman and Hilliard could continue to provide value to competitive Dynasty rosters. Even if a team is out of playoff contention, scooping either Hilliard or Foreman off of waivers and trading them to a contender would be a great way to generate value. A competitive team that needs running back help might easily trade a third-round rookie pick for Hilliard or Foreman.

Philly Special

Philadelphia Eagles fans were feeling good coming into this week. The team was still soaking in a sweet victory against a strong New Orleans Saints team the week before. A hapless New York Giants was on tap, and playoffs were on the horizon. What could go wrong? Jalen Hurts could and did go very, very wrong. He wasn't alone, as 2020 first-round receiver Jalen Reagor forgot that his hands could be used to catch the ball -- on multiple occasions. This disappointment shouldn't be a surprise, except that the fantasy football community has a short memory. Jalen Hurts posted scary stat lines all season. Yet, scattered amongst many dreadful real-life performances are a series of wonderful fantasy finishes. Who cares if he has a 60% completion percentage on the season and a 13:8 touchdown to interception ratio when his legs secure him a top-12 fantasy finish almost every week? Re-draft managers certainly don't care, but Dynasty managers should see this situation with open eyes. Hurts' stat line this week against the Giants included a 45.2% completion percentage for a meager 129 yards and three interceptions. That's just dreadful and could stop the Eagles from securing a playoff berth this season. Multiple performances like this will leave Hurts following in the path of his backup quarterback, Gardner Minshew. Such an outcome would also result in Dynasty managers hemorrhaging significant value, especially in a SuperFlex league. If fair trade options are available, please explore them. Continuing to roster Hurts is akin to playing Russian roulette with a fantasy roster every week. It'll be fine until it isn't, and then it will be too late.

Scheduling for Success

At this point in the season, teams have shown enough for managers to tentatively project the matchups that will be beneficial for position players. These concepts will become significantly more crucial and projectable as the fantasy playoffs approach. For most leagues this year, fantasy playoffs will be conducted from week fifteen to week seventeen. Identifying now which players will have difficult or soft fantasy playoff matchups is key. Doing so could result in opportunistic trade opportunities for competitive Dynasty rosters. Based on current information, Arizona, Dallas, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, and San Fransisco have cushy matchups for at least two out of the three games during that playoff span. On the other side, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Carolina, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and the Los Angeles Rams have difficult matchups in at least two of the games over that playoff span. Use this information to help identify ideal trade targets for last-minute help down the stretch while avoiding trade targets with theoretically challenging opponents. Examples of potential trade values might include A.J. Green, James Conner, Tony Pollard, Miles Sanders, Jimmy Garoppolo, or even Marvin Jones Jr., depending on what holes need filling on a given roster. Those players should be fairly cheap given their value in the market, could provide spot starts as necessary, or could be depth options in case of injury.