With Week 12 of the 2024 season in the books- time for a dynasty reaction!
Bryce Young Comeback
If you were to tell me when Bryce Young got benched that within a few weeks he would be back and going toe to toe with the Kansas City Chiefs into overtime, I would have laughed out loud. It seems like Bryce Young has done some growing up while sitting on the bench. His best game of the year throwing for a season high 263 yards, 1 TD (nearly another had it not been a dropped pass) and a turnover-free game. Since returning to the starting role, Bryce has been much more composed and as a whole the offense has been more effective at moving the ball and not turning it over. If Young can keep this up rest of season the Panthers are likely to keep him the starter heading into 2025 even with a current top 5 draft pick. If you can acquire Young for cheap as part of a package deal, I’m interested.
Dynasty TE1
Trey McBride is the only TE that’s anywhere near Brock Bowers in dynasty. It was another dominant performance (12-133) by Trey McBride who saw a whopping 58.8% first read target share, the highest for a TE in 2024, and despite this he STILL does not having a receiving TD on the season. McBride is now up to 685 receiving yards in 10 games and to illustrate how much of an outlier it is not to have a receiving TD, fellow TD George Kittle has 642 receiving yards and 8 receiving TDs. Even without the TDs, McBride is the TE3 on the year and continues his awesome run that started in the second half of last season. Him having a target by route run of 2.37 is 2nd best all time for a TE under the age of 25 and is ahead of the TE1 in dynasty Brock Bowers (2.02). These two are light years ahead in dynasty value terms. These are the only TE in dynasty that are worth multiple 1st round picks.
Courtland Sutton Buy High?
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago with my apology to Bo Nix, I was straight up out on this Broncos offense heading into 2024. In fact the only pieces I was remotely interested in was the RBs and that’s turned into a dumpster fire of a conversation. Sutton has always been a talented WR but has never put it together for multiple seasons and with a rookie QB a doubted it would happen at the age of 29. Currently the WR10 on the year and on 5 run stretch where he’s the WR2 averaging 93.4 yards per game. If you are contending I suggest trying to find Sutton in your league and if he’s not on a contender I’d happily pay a 2nd to acquire him for the playoff run.
Bucky Irving– New Lead Back?
It was the first time this season when both have been in the lineup that Bucky Irving saw more than a 50% snap share. Not only that but he saw 6 targets that he converted into 64 yards. His total of 151 yards was a career high and he looked awesome on his way to doing it. Rachaad White was his usual inefficient self and this time he only saw 1 target and that was the crucial part. He’s been fantasy viable sometimes on receptions alone, now that they’ve gone to Bucky, he’s essentially toast. Bucky is now probably atop the rookie RB class, albeit a disappointing one, and following the Buccaneers bye week, he could be a monster down the stretch. With matchups with the Panthers twice, Raiders, Cowboys and Saints, he’s in the league winners category and the buy window is still open while there’s still some sort of timeshare going on.
Jaylen Waddle Rebound?
Where’s this version of Jaylen Waddle been all season? Before this monster week (8-144-1), Waddle was the WR60 on the season and one of, if not the biggest bust of the season. He rebounded in a huge way as he normally does against the Patriots, but is this version of Waddle here for the stretch? It might be a hot take but I’d take Waddle over Tyreek Hill for the remainder of the season. Hill is banged up and has been talking of surgery for the past few weeks (although a delay until the offseason is likely). The way Tua Tagovailoa has come back from his injury (11 TDs to 1 INT) and slinging it, I will take the freshness of Waddle who’s playing with a point to prove and looked utterly unstoppable all over the field on Sunday.
TJ Hockenson is back
Many people had forgotten about Hockenson and just how good he is for fantasy when he’s on the field. The TE2 and TE4 over the past 2 seasons, came back with a bang against Chicago on Sunday registering 7 catches for 114 yards. It was a welcome return to form just as the playoff season starts to pick up, he had been worked in slowly coming off his major injury suffered at the back end of last year. Hockenson’s route rate has increased each week and jumped to 86% in week 12, a great sign that he’s fully healthy and ready to help down the stretch. Dynasty managers that have traded for Hockenson or stashed him on IR rejoice, you’ve got a huge addition for your teams.
Rookie WRs
Checking in with 2 more rookie WRs, Marvin Harrison Jr & Xavier Worthy. Two of the most talked about and hyped WRs of the 2024 rookie class, have both started probably slower than a lot expected. Marvin Harrison Jr is a particularly interesting dynasty asset having been drafted to a team in the Cardinals that were crying out for a stud alpha WR and drafted MHJ 4th overall. The production has been much a mixed bag and it’s been a slower start than most anticipated. In 11 appearances so far, he’s gone over 55 receiving yards just 3 times. When he does goes over this threshold, he smashes. In the two games he’s broken out this year he’s combined for 241 yards and 3 TDs, but he’s not been heavily targeted outside of these blow up games which is hard to understand as a Harrison owner in dynasty. There’s no doubt he’s an elite asset and will remain so unless he these struggles continue through his first couple of seasons. I don’t think we reach that point and for me he’s a target for me if anybody is doubting him or needs a sure fire contributor for a playoff run. If I don’t think I can compete this season I’m doing all I can to chuck win now pieces at a contender in order to try and get MHJ on my roster.
Another WR who’s stock couldn’t have been much higher following the draft was Xavier Worthy having blitzed the rookie combine and then landed on the Kansas City Chiefs following a trade up in Round 1. Worthy has seen similar frustratingly low usage through the start of his career and despite having 6 TDs already on the season and now leading the Chiefs in receiving yardage, he’s currently the WR44 in fantasy and not an automatic start each week. I think given the historical trend of rookie WRs starting slow on the Chiefs offense, there’s a chance he becomes a stud in dynasty (a Tyreek Hill lite) and at WR35 on KTC rankings, that’s interesting. BUT I think his value will be inflated should he start to put it together slightly more consistently because he’s on the Chiefs offense with Patrick Mahomes. The WR1 on that team is Rashee Rice and that was evident while he was healthy at the start of the season (WR2 through the first 3 weeks of the season before his season-ending injury). If Xavier Worthy’s value ever returned to where it was in the offseason (WR18) then I would look to pivot off him at that point. No Wide Receiver has taken over that WR1 alpha role for the Chiefs since Rice went down to injury and once he’s back healthy he will return to that dominant role he once had and Worthy and the ball will then be spread around the rest of the group as it is right now with the likes of Noah Gray scoring 4 TDs in the past 2 weeks.
Nico Collins is Elite
Reminder that Nico Collins is elite, you probably have him ranked too low. Back up to a 79% snap share in week 12 and back scoring TDs again (his 4th in 7 games played). Nico is fully back from his hamstring injury that saw him sidelined for 5 weeks, and it’s perfect timing with the playoff stretch upcoming. Not only for Nico managers but for CJ Stroud owners who’s seen their QB struggle mightily in 2024 without Nico Collins who he actively elevates. On the season in a points per game basis, Collins is the WR3 at 19.5, only below Ja’Marr Chase and Cooper Kupp. This could have been even better had he not had 2 big TDs called back because of penalties (77 yard TD & 33 yard TDs) both since his return from injury. Despite that injury that saw him miss 5 games, he’s still amazingly on pace for 1,222 receiving yards. I’ve seen a few rankings recently with Nico Collins ranked in the same tier as Marvin Harrison Jr, Puka Nacua, AJ Brown and only just above Drake London. I would have Nico comfortably above these 4 WRs and in the same tier as Ceedee Lamb and Amon-Ra St Bown so if I could pivot off or pay a little bit on top of any of these WRs I’m happy to do so to acquire Collins, fresh off the new contract in the offseason and tied to CJ Stroud for the foreseeable future, he’s an elite asset that I think can even elevate into the top tier if he keeps himself healthy.
Remember you can find our other content here. Reach out on social media, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Or jump into our Discord server.
