Week 9 : Growing Old is Getting Old

 

Fantasy managers talking to their aging QBs half way through the 2022 season

I talked in an earlier post about the general downturn in fantasy scoring for the 2022 season, and now I think we're starting to see a clearer reason why: there is a large group of formerly great fantasy QBs who are just getting old. The unbelievable longevity of Tom Brady's career seems to have convinced both NFL teams and fans that QBs can play farther and farther into their 30s/40s, but maybe that's not actually true?

What we're seeing is a lot of formerly great passers who can no longer support fantasy receiving options. 

Through 9 weeks

• Back to back MVP Aaron Rodgers is our QB16
• Former MVP Matt Ryan has been benched for Texas legend and 6th round draft pick Sam Ehlinger
• Russel Wilson is QB22
• Reigning super bowl winner Matthew Stafford is QB24

This has been compounded by back to back draft classes (21 and 22) which have produced only 1 good fantasy QB: Justin Fields. He's lighting the fantasy world on fire with his rushing ability, but throwing for 150  yards doesn't do his weapons any favors.

Basically: lots of passing talent out + very little in = bad news for NFL players who catch passes.

Matchups

Kelsey Lohan's Ghost vs Ancient Allens

Here's a fun fact: Kelsey's top 3 scorers (Mahomes, Adams, Etienne) combined for 104 points, which would have been enough for a comfortable 10 point win had he sat his other 6 players. Without the foresight to make such a daring lineup decision, he settles for a boring 55 point victory instead.

For Allens, strong weeks from Josh Allen and Derrick Henry weren't nearly enough to overcome gross weeks from Montgomery and Taysom Hill combined with bad kicker luck.

The Loch Ness Burrow vs Momo

Wow, talk about close games. Burrow lead all the way up until the end of regulation in Monday Night Football, but unfortunately for him a tie between the Titans and Chiefs gave Kelce the extra time he needed to catch a handful more passes for an additional ~30 yards. 

Momo escapes a very weird matchup in which neither players WR1 and WR2 combined for more than 10 points. He can thank half of Burrow's team being on bye/injured for some of that.

Bye Week vs Chipped by Billy G

JOE MIXON. 211 total yards, 5 total TDs as he mascaraed the Carolina defense. Combined with a ridiculous 27 points from the NE Defense, Billy G never really stood a chance.

Billy got solid 10-15 points from many of their players to put up a respectable score but clearly not enough.

Roswell LAMARtians vs Hazers

The combination of trading Hollywood Brown and losing Bateman and Andrews to injury has left Lamar with basically no one to catch passes. Consequentially, he has only broken 20 points once since his 40 point explosion vs Miami in week 2.

On the other side of the ball, Hazers secure the win with 20 point games from his TE and Kicker. Not really a lot else to be excited about on that matchup.

Oh Godwin he can see vs Ballderberg

2 of our lower ranked teams faced off in a very close matchup, featuring our only sub 100 point winner of the week. There's not a ton to say here for Ballderberg. They had a bunch of mediocre to bad games saved somewhat by rookie Tyler Algier.

The real difference was that they picked the right QB in this matchup and Oh Godwin most certainly did not. You can bet you'll find the details later in this writeup.

Jets Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams vs KY

Tyreek Hill is unstoppable. Who would have thought that after leaving Mahomes and Andy Reid he's now on pace for the most receiving yards of his career? I guess pairing him with a threat like Waddle has been more helpful than we could have imagined. KY also made a great call starting Josh Palmer as the only real WR for the Chargers offense...

Speaking of which, things are not looking good for Justin Herbert. I still think he's super talented, but loosing Keenan Allen and Mike Williams for this much of the season has cratered his fantasy output, sorry Jets Fuel. Good performances from a great WR set (Jefferson, AJ Brown, Olave) were not enough to elevate an weak RB duo who combined for 15 points.

Pickup of the Week

Mecole Hardman, Momo. Mentally I had written this guy off as unplayable in a messy/overcrowded WR group in KC. Turns out he now has 4 straight 10+ point games, including games of 26 and 19 points.

Shameful Benching of the Week

Oh Godwin he can see, Justin Fields. It's very rare to see a 30 point difference between your best and 2nd best QB when both of those players are actually active. Even crazier to see that the worse option was Aaron Rodgers.

Fields has now put up 21,26,27,49 the last 4 weeks while Rodgers hasn't broken 20 points even once all season.

If this week wasn't enough to show you who you should be starting going forward I'm not sure what to say.