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- THERE IS NO OFF-SEASON
THERE IS NO OFF-SEASON
ISSUE #28


Week three in the NFL was all about defense and special teams. Highlighted by the Vikings’ dominant defensive performance, and seven total blocked kicks, team defense was the story of the week. Which brings up a question: does your dynasty league use team defense? In the past, I’ve been in a few that use team defense, but it’s an odd setting for a dynasty league. Part of the fun of dynasty leagues is the constant cycle of players coming in and out of the league. For every rookie that becomes a fantasy superstar, that usually means another one has aged out. But, with team defense, you have the full unit. The Vikings’ defense will never retire, and another team defense is never going to pop up in a rookie draft. Of course, there is a life cycle to team defenses as well. Dominant players age out, or great rookies can raise the profile of a defense, but to me it just doesn’t seem to be in the spirit of the format. Today’s poll question at the bottom of this email will address this, and I’m genuinely curious to see how many of our readers play in dynasty leagues with team defense.
On the offensive side of the football, Jonathan Taylor continues to be one of the top value buys of the dynasty season. He dropped out of the top 40 at the end of the last season, and he’s still going outside of the top 20 in Dynasty ADP. He’s the RB1 on the season, coming off of a dominant three-touchdown performance. While Daniel Jones may be vulturing some goal line touches, it’s clear that his presence has been a major boon to the rushing game. Taylor has had some massive holes to run through, and he’s looked like Saquon Barkley on some of these long runs.
The rookie running backs started to finally emerge this weekend, with Omarion Hampton, Cam Skattebo and Quinshon Judkins all finishing in the top 12 for weekly scoring. Hampton is probably the rookie RB1 for the rest of the season with Najee Harris’s brutal, season-ending injury. Meanwhile, Ashton Jeanty and TreVeyon Henderson have continued to struggle to get going in their rookie seasons. I’m particularly concerned about Henderson’s value for the rest of this year. He’s been a liability in pass-protection and running in between the tackles. While Rhamondre Stevenson’s fumble issue hasn’t gone away this year, Mike Vrabel continues to go back to him, because he is such a critical piece to this Patriots offense. It’s shocking to see an early second-round rookie running back splitting backup carries with Antonio Gibson, but until he shows some ability to run between the tackles, I’m not sure his season will turn around.
Speaking of the rookies, the Giants have announced that they are giving Jaxson Dart the starting job starting this week against the Chargers. Through three games, Russell Wilson has had an atrocious QBR of only 34.0. He did well in a shootout game against the Cowboys, but the offense was hapless in weeks one and three, so they’re giving Wilson the early hook and turning to the rookie. This preseason, Dart completed 32 of 47 passes for 372 yards and three touchdowns. He didn’t throw a pick, and he ran the ball for 52 yards and a touchdown. This isn’t an ideal situation for Dart, who I believe truly needed a development year to reach his full potential. The Giants coaching staff will need to manufacture receivers open for Dart, who ran a spread RPO scheme in college. When he gets out of rhythm, that’s when the trouble can start for Dart and the Giants.
Turning the page, week four kicks off this evening with the Seahawks going to Arizona. The NFC West has been the best division in football early on this season, with all four teams 2-1 or better. The Seahawks in particula,r have looked great, second in the entire league with a +41 point differential. We also get the Micah Parsons revenge game on Sunday Night Football and a Monday Night doubleheader. We’ll continue watching the injury reports, watching to see if any of these quarterbacks will be able to be back on the field this week. We’re also watching the practice reports for CeeDee Lamb and Chris Godwin this week.
As we get into the nitty-gritty of the 2025 season, check out the DLF Expert Rankings to see where your players stand according to our experts. You can also plug your league into the My DLF League Sync Tool where you can see your rosters, all of your league mates’ rosters, available players on the waiver wire, and scores for all of the rosters. League sync also works for the Trade Analyzer Tool, to help you find a fair trade offer to send out to your leaguemates. You can’t win your dynasty league without winning in the regular season, so win the week with the advanced, analytical tools available at DLF!

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The Bears had the most impressive win of the week in week three. They handled business against the Bears, to the point that Dak Prescott finished the game on the bench. The defense was dominant, and Caleb Williams ran the offense very well. The Bears’ weapon who is off to the best start is last season’s first-round pick, Rome Odunze. Through three games, he’s the WR3 in PPR leagues, behind only Puka Nacua and Amon-Ra St. Brown. He’s averaging 9 targets a game, and he’s found the end zone four times (he just missed another one in week three). Coming off of an underwhelming rookie season, Odunze seems to have finally found his stride in Ben Johnson’s offensive system. Let’s take a look at his dynasty value and if he should be a target in trades this week.

Rome Odunze’s Dynasty ADP History.
A year ago at this time, Odunze was a top 25 pick, and now he’s fallen to just barely inside the top 40. He’s the number 39 player off the board and the WR22 in dynasty ADP. The DLF Expert Rankings have him higher at 34 overall and WR19. If you can buy Odunze at his ADP value right now, he’s a great buy, but his hot start to the season will inflate his value in the eyes of his dynasty managers.
Odunze has been a dominant force through the first three games. He’s constantly on the field, has 11 more targets than anyone else on the team, and he’s the only player on the team with more than one touchdown (four total). DJ Moore got more involved in week two, but the Bears seem to be manufacturing targets for him to get the ball in his hands. When Williams drops back to pass downfield, he’s primarily looking for Odunze. He was my favorite rookie wide receiver from last season, and that looked like a bad take after his rookie season. But, through three games, he’s starting to rebuild that dynasty value.

Ken Kelly reacts to the James Conner injury for dynasty fantasy football leagues. | Kev White highlights intriguing players in the Dynasty Marketplace. | Lewis Wood analyzes four struggling elite wide receivers. |

WEEKLY MATCHUPS: FOUR BAD RB MATCHUPS
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed a series of tweets I share on a weekly basis regarding player and team defensive performances, all from a fantasy lens. I’m going to be sharing some of that same information with you here. I use this each week as I am making my own lineup and waiver wire decisions, and I thought you might find this valuable as well.
In fact, the weekly matchup numbers may be the most relevant, actionable data we look at each week. Examining how teams have performed against certain positions and then targeting or avoiding those players each week has been a huge game-changer in my weekly lineup decisions. With that in mind, this year, I’ll focus most of my attention on that weekly matchup info, giving you a few must-start or must-sit players each week, based on the trends and numbers.
The good news is, it is still early in the process of collecting this matchup data, and things can change quickly. The bad news is, this looks like a terrible week when it comes to matchups for the league’s best running backs. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not sitting any of these superstars in your dynasty or seasonal league, but this might not be the week to lean on them in daily fantasy games. Adjust your expectations for…
The Colts’ star runner looks like the best back in the league in Indy’s rejuvenated offense. Taylor is coming off back-to-back RB1 games as he faces off with the Rams in Southern California. The Rams are the only team in the league yet to allow a top-24 fantasy performance to running back,s holding Nick Chubb to an RB37 finish, followed by Tony Pollard as the RB32 and shutting down Saquon Barkley as last week’s RB30. The Rams have allowed a total of 30 fantasy points to all opposing running backs this season. Taylor is averaging more than that over the past two weeks. As the focal point of that Colts offense, Taylor should still see plenty of opportunity, but his hot streak could come to an end in Week Four.
Christian McCaffrey, RB SF
The 49ers veteran McCaffrey is one of four backs to finish as an RB1 in all three weeks of the young season. With so many of his teammates on the sidelines, McCaffrey has been leaned on as much as ever, despite a pre-season injury scare. This week, CMC and the Niners face off with the Jaguars, who have allowed just one top-24 fantasy game this year to opposing backfield. Chuba Hubbard stung them in the opener, finishing as the RB8 for the week. Since then, Jacksonville’s defense shut down Chubb (RB38) and Chase Brown (RB34). Obviously, Jacksonville hasn’t faced a runner nearly as talented as McCaffrey yet this season, so this could be one trend that gets thrown out after this matchup. For now, the Jags are allowing the fourth-fewest fantasy points to opposing backs, just 14 per game.
Bijan Robinson, RB ATL
Robinson has looked poised for a massive breakout season, beginning the year with RB2, RB7, RB13 performances, fueled by his work as a receiver. This week, Robinson and the Falcons meet the Commanders, who are allowing just 13.1 fantasy points per game to opposing backfields and have held every opponent outside of the top-20 weekly fantasy scorers. With the Commanders favored on the road, Robinson might need to continue his hot streak as a pass-catcher to pad his fantasy numbers this week.


Do your dynasty leagues use team D/ST? |