Thomas Emerick breaks down how offensive line continuity impacts fantasy performance heading into Week 3 and reveals which lineup changes could boost (or blow up) your quarterback and running back selections.

This column finally gets to sink its teeth into week-over-week changes on offensive lines and the potential fantasy impact.

Continuity will remain the central focus, keeping in mind which linemen have been an integral part of the dance line from the year prior. The goal is to help chart the disruption that injuries create up front.

This adds another layer for consideration in setting fantasy lineups and evaluating potential transactions. It hopefully puts all that information in digestible form, visually along with some context for the real OL/fantasy sickos.

Offensive lines adding and losing incumbents

We just flipped on the switch for a new feature: Continuity fluctuation. It gets pretty dangerous in that mass of bodies, so there will be plenty to chart in terms of the number of incumbents teams carried into the season and how many they gain or lose compared to the week prior. This could provide some explanatory use for the week prior and forward-looking value, though it’s still important to monitor injury reports heading into the weekend.

Let’s start with Panthers’ 2022 sixth-overall pick Ikem Ekwonu returning for all 65 pass blocking snaps last week after missing Week 1 due to injury. Bryce Young probably appreciated the blind-side protector as he threw Carolina into colossally negative game script. He did bounce back for a QB5 performance in fantasy despite taking the real-life L.

And that’s not down to Icky being a great pass blocker as much as it is continuity and not being a catastrophe. This was about weak links and getting back to average.