Shawn Siegele breaks down Christian McCaffrey’s historical performance and explains how he can maintain his production in San Francisco.
After seven weeks of drudgery punctuated by the occasional fantasy eruption, Week 8 reminded us what football – reality and fantasy alike – is supposed to be. The NFL teams awakened from a prolonged slumber and gave us contests like Dolphins/Lions (that featured over 500 passing yards in the first half), Cowboys/Bears (where Justin Fields continued his mini-breakout but was completely overshadowed by Dallas posting 49 points), and Eagles/Steelers (where the Eagles reinforced their NFC dominance after a week’s layoff).
Week 8 was one prolonged party at the RB position as four backs scored three touchdowns, and they weren’t even the four highest scorers with Derrick Henry carrying 32 times for 219 yards and punching it in twice himself.
Not to be outdone, the WR position joined the parade with a three-score game from A.J. Brown. He needed only a single half to light up the Steelers. He was one of four receivers to score 30-plus points. DeAndre Hopkins and Tyreek Hill both caught 12 passes for more than 150 yards, and they were joined by Jaylen Waddle who added 106 yards and two TDs.
Seamus Carr had a great rundown of the Sunday fireworks, including a look at D.J. Moore’s return to the fantasy spotlight. I’ll focus on those developments in Part 2 of my Week 8 reflections, but breaking down Christian McCaffrey’s epic performance is job one.
Ben Gretch and I broke down the 49ers trade right as it happened, a time when the fantasy community was more split on his move to San Francisco. We argued in favor of the trade bounty from a reality perspective and made the case that it would launch him back into the stratosphere. The logic and numbers behind that thesis are an important part of understanding the new normal.
Of course, Ben and I may have been a little bit biased, since our best FFPC Main Event roster contained Jalen Hurts, McCaffrey, Hill, and Brown. We were able to survive a 200-178 slugfest in Week 8. Yes, fantasy was that much better this week.
Can we expect more of these types of games going forward?
