It is finally fantasy football championship week. We have been working hard all season to get to this point. These past few weeks alone have felt like a lifetime. Most of my teams did not fair well with COVID and injuries, and I saw early exits from the playoffs. I hope that all of your teams were a bit more successful than my own.
Once your teams are eliminated it often feels like there is nothing that you can do. First, that is not true. If your team has rules that prevent eliminated teams from making transactions I would encourage you to try and get that changed moving forward.
Either way, these last few weeks of the season are important for you as a fantasy football manager to evaluate your own process. What parts of your process were good and which were bad? Did you leave a lot of FAAB unused, or did you use it all way too quickly? Did you make poor trades out of desperation?
Outside of this, I encourage you to try and add some rules in your fantasy football leagues that incentivize all teams playing through the entire season. This could mean playing in a keeper league that allows you to keep any player on your roster at the end of the season. You could also add prizes for the winner of the losers brackets. Have your draft order based on your leagues finishing position. In my primary league, we are discussing adding rules that makes our losers bracket more engaging for those players. This includes allowing the losers bracket winner to gain an extra round worth of keeper value. There are so many rules to make your leagues more fun for everyone.
Quarterback
There are currently 16 quarterbacks that are rostered in over 50% of fantasy football leagues. After looking at each of them, I could make an argument of why they deserve to be on the majority of fantasy rosters for championship week.
With all of the COVID issues it is not a bad idea to roster multiple QBs until your starter’s game is about to start. If you are to lose your starting QB on gameday it might be tricky to replace them from the waiver wire. But if you have a decent backup option that you can plug and play, then you will be very happy to not have cut any of the top 16 rostered QBs.
Running Backs
Chuba Hubbard, Carolina Panthers (64.9% Rostered, 18.3% Started)
Many fantasy football managers used a lot of FAAB on Hubbard after the Panthers lost CMC for the year. Unfortunately, it just has not worked out. From Week 12 through 15, Hubbard was outsnapped and outproduced by Ameer Abdullah. Hubbard did have a better Week 16, but it was not impressive enough to want to get him into your lineup.
In addition, the Panthers will be playing the Saints who have been pretty tough for fantasy football running backs. The Saints have only allowed one touchdown since their Week 6 bye. If you are in your championship matchup you can not plug Hubbard into your lineup unless you are desperate.
Chuba Hubbard the most inefficient rusher of '21 https://t.co/TOq6IUzqPz
— NBC Sports EDGE Football (@NBCSEdgeFB) December 27, 2021
Justin Jackson, Los Angeles Chargers (48.1% Rostered, 36% Started)
Jackson is someone I have liked for a while, but his biggest issues are availability, and availability of touches. Austin Ekeler is the clear workhorse. As long as Ekeler is on the field, Jackson has no place in your starting lineup. He was a very popular waiver wire pickup last week due to his increased role in the offense and Ekeler’s absence. With Ekeler likely returning from the COVID-IR this week, there is really no reason to have Jackson rostered entering your fantasy football championship.
Wide Receivers
Julio Jones, Tennessee Titans (69.5% Rostered, 20.2% Started)
On Monday, Julio Jones was placed on the COVID-IR following a positive test. It is not clear whether he will miss the Week 17 game or not, but do you really want to plug him into your lineup? Since returning from injury in Week 14, he has played on less than 50% of the snaps in each game.
In addition, he has still been battling injuries. In his three games since returning from injury he has only 5 receptions for just 40 yards. This is not enough to get him into your starting championship lineup. I would feel comfortable dropping him for any WR that is healthy. You want to ensure you have someone to plug in and comfortably play if you have a late week injury or inactive.
Julio Jones has one game this season with more than 9 fantasy points.
— Ryan McDowell (@RyanMc23) December 27, 2021
Tight Ends
Jared Cook, Los Angeles Chargers (54% Rostered, 29.6% Started)
Jared Cook is often considered one of the better streaming TE options. Like most tight ends, he is very dependent on touchdowns; which have unfortunately not been as frequent as fantasy football managers had hoped. In what should have been a decent matchup against the Texans, Cook only had 44 receiving yards without a touchdown. He did catch a 2-point conversion which helped out somewhat, but fantasy managers were still hoping for more.
Next week the Chargers play the Broncos who have been one of the more difficult matchups for fantasy tight ends. If you could not rely on Cook in what should have been a decent matchup, you can not put him in your lineup for what is going to be a difficult matchup.
Herbert just been off with Jared Cook all season…
The drops are brutal, but the miscommunications & timing are devastating when the results are INTs pic.twitter.com/PRrcNF2kWQ
— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) December 27, 2021
Thank You
Thanks for everyone who has taken the time to read any or all of these weekly articles. I hope that my advice helped you succeed. I know there were definitely some players I was wrong about, but there were a lot of guys that I suggested dropping at the right time.
I originally picked this article because it is something that I knew I could do better. This process helped me identify guys that were clogging up my fantasy football bench. There were also players that should have been in this article earlier; based on the fact that I had them on my rosters and I was not quite ready to cut them. I look forward to further developing this process as we move towards the 2022 season.
