4-Eyed Observations: Week 8

Fantasy Stats and Info via espn.com/fantasy & FantasyPros.com 


1) Wil Lutz: The New Hot Commodity

With the inclement weather starting to become a factor this season it’s always a good idea to start targeting kickers who have a home-field advantage when it comes to an optimal kicking environment….aka kick indoors. If you look at the top 7 kickers in the league (ESPN scoring) five out of those seven play their homes games outdoors while two of them play their home games inside a dome. Of those two kickers, only ONE plays a majority of their games at home for the rest of the season. That kicker: Wil Lutz

Lutz is averaging 10.6 fppg and having a high performing kicker such as him with such an advantage in your lineup cannot be understated going forward. While he IS owned in 62.7% of ESPN leagues, 81% of Yahoo leagues, & the #9 kicker in NFL leagues, if you are in a position to trade for a bench player for your roster creating a trade package that would include Lutz in that deal would greatly benefit you now and in the fantasy playoffs as he IS playing in a dome in week 14 and at home in week 16. Don’t be a yutz, trade for Lutz! 

2) QB Streaming Options For The Next Month

Look I’m not going to lie to you, the streaming options for quarterbacks are pretty bare. However, while looking at streaming quarterback options with ownership of less than 30% in ESPN leagues I came out with a list of four quarterbacks and ranked them by the average number of fantasy points their next four opponents yield to the quarterback position:

a)Blake Bortles: Believe it or not Bortles (owned in 12% of ESPN leagues) shows the most upside when facing opponents over the next four weeks with a combined DVOA of 16.2 fantasy points per game (fppg). For those hurting at QB, he has the best sleeper potential to help keep your ship from sinking.

b) Jared Goff: Owned in 26.6% of ESPN leagues faces a DVOA of 16 fppg over the next four weeks. Given the high potency of L.A.’s offense so far this season look for Goff to provide you with a valuable baseline off which to project success over that time period.

c) Case Keenum: Over his next four GAMES (on bye week 9) , based on DVOA, looks to average 16 fppg during weeks 10-13. He is owned in 12.3% of ESPN leagues and is a fantastic streaming option for those looking to make that final push towards the fantasy playoffs. 

d) Josh McCown: Owned in 25.9% of ESPN leagues McCown, based on DVOA, over the next four weeks looks to average 15.6 fppg. Not horrible for a streaming option during that time span.


3) JuJu Smith-Schuster & Paul Richardson need to be owned and started over their next four games.

JuJu and Richardson face opponents over their next four games, based on DVOA, that could yield wide receivers on both their teams with an average of 21.3 and 20.9 fppg respectively. Sure there is a concern about targets due to the number of mouths to feed on their respective offenses, but COME ON those are too high of numbers to just ignore putting those two on your roster. Pick those two up off waivers in your leagues if you can. If not, perhaps work out a small trade for them. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

4) IDP managers, stop dragging your feet and roster Micah Hyde.

While IDP leagues vary from scoring options for this purpose I’m going to base my conclusions partially on this scoring rubric and partially on what Hyde has done over his past four games.

17 solo tackles, 5 assisted tackles, 6 passes defensed, 4 INT’s, & 2 stuffs. That’s an average of 8.8 fppg during that time period. Those are rediculously impressive numbers, and he has only gotten better as the season has gone on. He’s only owned in 14.8% of ESPN IDP leagues. Roster him now and plug him in!


Those are my 4-Eyed Observations from Week 8!

Check back Wednesday afternoon for my latest lab notebook entry previewing quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, AND NOW tight ends for week 9!