Thanksgiving!
Lately, it’s been rare that I get a chance to spend Thanksgiving with my family on the actual Thanksgiving Day. For the last few years I’ve been in New York and worked through the Thanksgiving Weekend. Last year I came down to prepare for the move back to Texas, and since I wanted to avoid the travel rush, I came down the week before. We had our little Thanksgiving feast the weekend before the actual date. Of course, before that when I was originally in Austin I was usually working on Thanksgiving Day…and if I wasn’t working then the economy was really bad, and I really wished I was working!! Today we’re doing something really rare and celebrating with the extended family with 20+ people. Should really be a treat!!
This year I’ve been extremely thankful for my family and their continued support. It has not been an easy 14+ months for me, and there is much that still has to be done. In any case, for all of those reading from here in America, enjoy the holiday, enjoy your families, and enjoy your respective feasts! And, of course, the football!!
Austin Jazz Week 10 & 11 Recap
Wanted to start off by saying that I am now on a two-game win streak!! Hell yeah!!
In Week 10 there didn’t prove to be too much drama. I took the lead pretty early and never let up against my opponent. I ended up winning 128-94 riding on the back of WR Julio Jones (Atlanta), RB Kerryon Johnson (Detroit), TE Zach Ertz (Philadelphia), and WR Tyler Lockett (Seattle).
For Week 11, again there wasn’t much drama. I had five points coming out of the Thursday night game and kept that lead throughout the weekend. Once again it was Julio Jones and Kerryon Johnson that helped me out as well as RB Saquon Barkley (New York Giants) and WR Stefon Diggs (Minnesota). Here’s the funny part though. I was done after the Sunday night game and had amassed 148 points. My opponent had 69 points going into Monday night, but he had three players that night…including QB Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City). I figured there was no way that I was going to lose, but man that game Monday night was nuts! I still won by 30 points (148-118), but damn, that was something to watch.
The Austin Jazz is now 6-5 and sitting in 5th place in my league. This week I’m up against a 5-6 7th place team. At the moment I’m projected to win so I’m hoping that remains true. Today I only have Julio Jones playing so I’m definitely hoping to start the week on a high note!
Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions:
This game could potentially be the ugliest of the three games we get to see today. QB Mitchell Trubisky (an incredible Fantasy player this year) has a shoulder injury and will not be playing today; had the Bears been playing on Sunday, he might have started. In his place we get Chase Daniel who has definitely not had much of a Fantasy background. He’s only scored in the double digits once in Fantasy, and that was back in 2013 against the Chargers. He scored 20. The Lions have a terrible run defense so I imagine that the Bears will try and establish that run game and just hope that Chase can manage the game well. I certainly expect big things from the Chicago defense though. I’m disappointed that Kerryon Johnson will not be playing since he has been extremely productive for me fantasy-wise in the last two weeks. At the moment my only backup is Derrick Henry (Tennessee), but I may be weighing some different options between now and Sunday.
| Position | Player | Team | Fantasy Projections |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Chase Daniel | CHI | 9 |
| QB | Matthew Stafford | DET | 24 |
| RB | Jordan Howard | CHI | 12 |
| RB | Tarik Cohen | CHI | 11 |
| RB | Theo Riddick | DET | 6 |
| WR | Allen Robinson | CHI | 8 |
| WR | Taylor Gabriel | CHI | 7 |
| WR | Joshua Bellamy | CHI | 3 |
| WR | Kenny Golladay | DET | 19 |
| WR | Bruce Ellington | DET | 5 |
| TE | Trey Burton | CHI | 7 |
| TE | Levine Toilolo | DET | -1 |
| K | Cody Parkey | CHI | 8 |
| K | Matt Prater | DET | 8 |
| DEF | Bears | CHI | 15 |
| DEF | Lions | DET | 2 |
Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys:
The second of our trio of games is a fight for the lead in the NFC East which is a bit surprising given their respective records, but this division just plain sucks! Alex Smith was my backup QB, but I had only used him once this season favoring Kirk Cousins (Minnesota) over him. That leg injury that Smith had, though, was gruesome. Earlier in the season when these two met, Washington kept Ezekiel Elliott to just 33 yards rushing, but here’s hoping that he fares quite a bit better at home on Thanksgiving!
| Position | Player | Team | Fantasy Projections |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Dak Prescott | DAL | 24 |
| QB | Colt McCoy | WAS | 12 |
| RB | Ezekiel Elliott | DAL | 24 |
| RB | Rod Smith | DAL | 1 |
| RB | Adrian Peterson | WAS | 16 |
| RB | Kapri Bibbs | WAS | 1 |
| WR | Amari Cooper | DAL | 10 |
| WR | Cole Beasley | DAL | 8 |
| WR | Michael Gallup | DAL | 4 |
| WR | Trey Quinn | WAS | 9 |
| WR | Maurice Harris | WAS | 8 |
| WR | Josh Doctson | WAS | 4 |
| TE | Geoff Swaim | DAL | 6 |
| TE | Jordan Reed | WAS | 11 |
| K | Brett Maher | DAL | 10 |
| K | Dustin Hopkins | WAS | 7 |
| DEF | Cowboys | DAL | 6 |
| DEF | Redskins | WAS | 9 |
Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints:
I feel like this will be the most entertaining of the three games we have today. The Saints are one of the best, if not the best, offensive teams in the league (scoring 45 or more points in the last 3 weeks). I imagine that Drew Brees will have a big day against the Falcons defense as well as all of the Saints starters. As for me and the Austin Jazz, all of my money is on Julio Jones!
| Position | Player | Team | Fantasy Projections |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Drew Brees | NO | 32 |
| QB | Matt Ryan | ATL | 24 |
| RB | Alvin Kamara | NO | 21 |
| RB | Mark Ingram | NO | 11 |
| RB | Tevin Coleman | ATL | 17 |
| RB | Ito Smith | ATL | 10 |
| WR | Michael Thomas | NO | 25 |
| WR | Tre'quan Smith | NO | 14 |
| WR | Keith Kirkwood | NO | 5 |
| WR | Julio Jones | ATL | 24 |
| WR | Calvin Ridley | ATL | 16 |
| WR | Mohamed Sanu | ATL | 9 |
| TE | Josh Hill | NO | 4 |
| TE | Austin Hooper | ATL | 12 |
| K | Wil Lutz | NO | 14 |
| K | Matt Bryant | ATL | 9 |
| DEF | Saints | NO | 8 |
| DEF | Falcons | ATL | 5 |
*The predictions for this model comes from statistics tables scraped from The Huddle and Football Outsiders from 2006-2018 . Injury data is from Rotoworld as of 3:00 PM, Thursday, November 1, 2018.
As usual I used the Fantasy Points-Per-Reception (PPR) scores for my predictions which comes from the following:
- 1 point per 25 yards passing
- 4 points per passing touchdown
- -2 points per interception thrown
- 1 point per reception
- 1 point per 10 yards rushing/receiving
- 6 points per TD
- 2 points per two-point conversion
- -2 points per fumbles lost
All predictive elements for Fantasy Football Models are for entertainment purposes only. Do your own research before making any decisions on your Fantasy Football team especially in money leagues!!