The Dirty Dozen, Week 2 Newletter
2024 Fantasy Football Season
Weekly Observations
As Week 2 wraps up we all scamble to find those waiver pickups that will change the outcome of our team's season. No surprise to anyone, Isaiah Likely was the most picked up player in ESPN fantasy leauges after Week 1, going from being rostered in 9.4% of leagues to 87.0% of leagues in Week 2, including by Heaf in our league. Likely awarded fantasy owners by putting up a whopping 3.6 points, having two less targets than Mark Andrews (7.1 points), go figure.
While Likely missed his points projection, another waiver pickup gifted by Aint no “Swift”y to You Got a Purdy Mouth, Jaxon Smith-Njigba (was a keeper), went 8.8 points above projection, finishing with 17.7 points this week as WR12. Pretty sure JSN heard about being dropped by Jake.
My 3 takeaways from Week 2:
Ok Saints, as Shaq said “I owe you an apology. I wasn’t really familiar with your game”. After putting up 47 points agaist the Panthers in Week 1 the Saints went to Jerry World and put up 44 points against the Cowboys. Alvin Kamara RB1 (43.0 points) had four total touchdowns, Derek Carr QB2-tied (25.82 points) was slinging the ball to Rashid Shaheed WR10 (18.9 points) and Chris Olave WR26 (10.8 points). These four combined for 98.52 points in Week 2! The only comparable team in Week 2 was the Cardinals.
I think the Jaguars are going to start 0-4 and miss the playoffs (Bills & Texans next up). After surrendering a 17-7 lead against the Dolphins, losing 20-17 in Miami during Week 1, I thought the Jags would bounce back against the Browns who got thumped by Dallas in Week 1. I was wrong. Trevor Lawrence (13.3 points) threw for over 200 yards in Week 2, unlike in Week 1, but his completion percentage dipped below 50% and the timing with his receivers seemed off. The biggest disappointment has been Christian Kirk (0.4 points). Kirk’s stat line after two weeks is 2 receptions, for 29 yards (-1 yards in Week 2) on 7 targets totaling 3.9 fantasy points. With Kirk struggling and Evan Engram getting hurt in pre-game warm ups, Brian Thomas Jr. (10.4 points) & and Gabe Davis (5.8 points) look to be the top targets in Jacksonville for now as both have higher target shares and more redzone targets than Kirk through Week 2.
Nico Collins is the WR1 for the Texans. In Week 1, Collins finished with 14.7 fantasy points on 6 catches for 117 yards. He followed that performance up in Week 2 with 23.5 fantasy points on 8 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown. Over the first two weeks Collins has a 27.7% target share followed up by Stefon Diggs (5.7 points) with a 18.5% target share. Tank Dell (1.8 points) is a close third with a 16.9% target share. With all of the weapons in Houston, Collins has pulled away as the volume receiver, Diggs being the redzone target, and Dell hoping to haul in a deep pass.
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Best & Worst
Looking at the players that scored the most points above their projection by position in Week 2:
QB Kyler Murray, Show Me The Penix: 34.54 points; 13.24 points above projection
RB Alvin Kamara, Pitts and Giggles: 43.0 points; 29.1 points above projection
WR Marvin Harrison Jr., Goff My Lawn!: 27.0 points; 15.0 points above projection
TE Hunter Henry, Waivers: 14.9 points; 9.1 points above projection
The disappointments of the week, guys who missed their projection by position the most in Week 2:
QB Bryce Young, Hose Alt (bench): 1.96 points; 15.14 points below projection
RB Rachaad White, My Chubb Makes U Waddle: 2.8 points; 9.8 points below projection
WR Tyreek Hill, Aint no “Swift”y: 5.1 points; 12.9 points below projection
TE Travis Kelce, Aint no “Swift”y: 1.1 points; 9.8 points below projection
Injuries
There were a number of injuries in Week 2 and leading up to Week 2, so let’s see the injuries listed by teams in the most pain:
Pitts and Giggles: 4 WRs either out last Sunday or left game with injury (Brown, Deebo, Higgins, Addison)
Goff My Lawn!: Too many to list, send help. (CMC, KWIII, & more)
Alabama Repalcements: Tua Tagovailoa (concussion…)
Hose Alt: Cooper Kupp (likely to go on IR); Evan Engram (pregame warmup injury)
My Chubb Makes U Waddle: Justin Jefferson (left game questionnable); Isiah Pacheco (put on IR Monday)
Show Me The Penix: Jordan Love (MCL sprain)
Forsaken Ones: Puka Nacua (placed on IR, out at least 4 games)
Williams you be my Nabers?: Keenan Allen & David Njoku (Inactive Week 2)
CB Alt: Joe Mixon (left game with ankle injury), Dameon Pierce (hamstring, inactive)
Aint no “Swift”y: Hollywood Brown (placed on IR, unlikely to play this year)
You Got a Purdy Mouth: Amon-Ra St. Brown (left game with lower body injury)
Noami Lana: Nothing new or notable
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Week 2 Power Rankings
After Week 2, CB & Meg swapped positions atop the power rankings while Heaf remains at the bottom. Biggest risers were CB Alt and NoPair both moving up 3 spots. Largest fall belongs to Flash, falling 2 spots to 10th.
Week 2 Highlights
Sharing some of the best tweets I saw during the Week 2 Sunday games:
Week 3 Preview
Matchup of the Week
In Week 3, Josh looks to get his first win of the seaon by giving Hose Alt their first loss. These teams have the pair of injured Rams WRs, Puka for Josh and Kupp for Hose Alt. The spread is -2.6 for Josh, but Hose Alt has an advantage in average points of 152.77 to 150.17 in the current starting lineups.
