NFL Week 8 — How NFL Organizational Incompetence Can be Leveraged for Fantasy Advantage; Top Top…

Nine weeks into the season, there is no place to hide, and very little time to make up ground lost if you’ve not capitalized early on, and…

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NFL Week 8 — How NFL Organizational Incompetence Can be Leveraged for Fantasy Advantage; Top Top Fantasy Performers through 8 Weeks

NFL Week 8 Fantasy Musings; Raiders Organizational Incompetence is Fantasy Arbitrage; Top Fantasy…
_Episode 47 of the Fantasy Sports Collective Podcast hosted by JayDubb, covers the weekly discussion on fantasy stories…_share.transistor.fm

Nine weeks into the season, there is no place to hide, and very little time to make up ground lost if you’ve not capitalized early on, and dug yourself a big hole, it’s now or never.

That was never more evident than today with the Las Vegas Raiders firing their head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler. This move means we’re now on our 4th gm and 8th head coach since Al Davis died and his son took over management of the team.

Which leads me to the theme of this week. Success doesn’t come from a single person, it starts from the top, and it’s earned through hard work, trust, empowerment at all levels and patience. It doesn’t happen when their is a lack of trust, and leaders in an organization spend more time developing alliances or undermining peers. The Raiders dysfunction is well documented, the NYTimes reported this last summer, bullying, hostile work environment were some of the key concerns. My point is if you’re a Raider fan, this move today won’t chance anything. Until Mark Davis is willing to sell the team to a competent owner or can grow to let others run the organization, the result on the field simply won’t change. They will continue to struggle. Other examples include the Arizona Cardinals (ESPN investigation) and the Washington football club comparing the Jack Kent Cooke era vs. the Dan Synder era. Why does this matter, because it’s a good lesson as we think about fantasy football.

The component of Fantasy success that is controllable, is recognizing what teams maybe gaining stability and are on the upswing, and which ones are a dumpster fire. When you hit on these trends, you have an arbitrage opportunity. For example the past two years there was a general consensus that the Seattle Seahawks were tanking for a top pick but nobody considered that ownership, general management and coaching had all been stable, were consistent winners, and the organization wasn’t going to bottom out. Another example this season are the Tampa Bay Bucs. They’ve outperformed offensively but that makes sense — the infrastructure and stability from the Tom Brady seasons are still in place, and they’re performing well. Examples where the opposite are true? Just look at the biggest surprise underperforming teams. New York Giants, are an example. There has not been stability, their front office has underperformed for the past 10 years, and their roster simply is barren.

2023 NFL Trade Deadline Deals (graphic courtesy of ESPN)

Top QB Fantasy Performers Through 8 NFL Weeks

Top RB Fantasy Performers Through 8 NFL Weeks

Top WR Fantasy Performers Through 8 NFL Weeks

Top TEFantasy Performers Through 8 NFL Weeks

Top K Fantasy Performers Through 8 NFL Weeks