Leon's List - 2022 Week 15
Leon’s List is a weekly post about waiver wire players I’m keeping an eye on.
The fantasy football regular season is over! The seeds are set for the first round of the playoffs. I’ll have more on the playoffs further down.
But now a bit of housekeeping.
I’m going to stop Leon’s List for this season after today. I have a few reasons:
- It’s the playoffs and I need all the help I can get. So I’m keeping things closer to the chest. I also have $0 FAAB and can’t outbid anyone for players.
- As the weeks go on, there will be fewer managers left in the playoffs. I don’t expect people to care about waiver wire claims if they aren’t playing for the championship.
- I’m getting lazy. It’s been a fun 15 weeks. But I’m ready to relax on Sunday and Monday evenings instead of trying to put words together in a way that makes sense.
Playoff Matchups
I’m writing this before Yahoo actually sets the matchups, so bare with me if there are mistakes.
(1) John O. vs (8) Mat
John comes in as the regular season champion. He is also riding a 5-game win streak. The top end talent on his team is crazy. Justin Jefferson, Josh Jacobs, Travis Kelce, Tony Pollard, and Justin Herbert. The only blemish on this team is Tee Higgins’ hamstring injury.
Mat limps into the playoffs as the 8th seed. Mat started the season strong by winning five out of the first six games. However, the second half of the season has not been kind. He enters this contest with a 4-game losing streak. Mat has to lean on Josh Allen and Dalvin Cook to win this matchup.
(2) Alan vs. (7) Simon
Alan has been on a tear lately, scoring more than 140 fantasy points in the last three weeks. Jalen Hurts and CMC has been lighting up. A couple of concerns for Alan is the health of his running backs, Rhamondre Stevenson and Jeff Wilson Jr. Both of these backs did not finish their respective games last week.
Simon’s season has been full of streaks. He has a 4-game winning streak sandwiched between two 3-game losing streaks. The good news for Simon is that he gets Alvin Kamara and Scary Terry back from bye for this matchup. Pete Carrol also said there’s a chance Kenny Walker could play against the Niners on Thursday.
(3) Kyle vs (6) Kevin
The battle of the waiver wire quarterbacks!
Kyle lost Lamar Jackson two weeks ago due to a knee injury. Tyler Huntley went out last week with a concussion.
Kevin lost Jimmy G two weeks ago due to a foot injury. Kyler Murray left Monday’s game with a non-contact knee injury.
Both these managers will need to hit the waiver for a replacement. A few of the better quarterbacks available include: Aaron Rodgers, Mike White, Tom Brady, and Baker Mayfield. Maybe one of them will take a gamble on Desmond Ridder?
(4) Dyrk vs (5) Leon
Dyrk’s turnaround in the second half of the season is unbelievable. After starting 1-6, Dyrk put together a 7-game winning streak. His last loss was in Week 7 to… me. Dyrk has averaged 130 points during this streak. Everyone is clicking on his team from Mahomes to Evan Engram.
I have the opposite trajectory of Dyrk. I had a 4-game losing streak before beating Simon last week. There’s a mix bag of injury luck on my side. Mike Williams and Joe Mixon came back last week. They were both productive. However, injuries to Deebo and Amari Cooper hamper the ceiling of my team.
Future Plans
Thanks everyone for subscribing and reading for the past 15 weeks. That’s it from me for the next three weeks or so. I’ll probably write a wrap up post that summarizes the season after we crown a champion. Then I’ll be back next August to campaign for my pet causes (auction and super flex) before the managers meeting.
If you liked my writing and want more, I write another newsletter called Thursday Thoughts. It contains a few things I found most interesting from blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and etc. Last week, I wrote about Andor and a Chik-Fil-A in Florida offering three day workweeks. You can sign up for it here.
Tags: #football