I won Week 7, 152.82 to 95.80. Tony Pollard led my lineup with 36.5 points, but I hadn't picked him over Breece Hall. Hall was my intended starter, with Pollard set as the autosub. Hall didn't play, so Pollard's points counted.
Zay Flowers added 27.7 and Jared Goff had 22.02. Those were my three highest-scoring starters. There were also two big scores outside my lineup, from Omar Cooper Jr. and Caleb Douglas.
What changed
Goff went back in at quarterback. I had only picked up C.J. Stroud because Goff had a bye, so I dropped Stroud and added Douglas on October 21.
Chase Brown came back into the lineup too. He's my RB1 and had been on bye the week before. I also switched from New Orleans to Cleveland at defense. I thought Cleveland was the better defense.
The bigger roster change was the trade for Ladd McConkey. I sent Rome Odunze, Adonai Mitchell and KC Concepcion for him. I already wrote about why I made that trade, so I won't redo the whole case here. The Chargers were on bye, so Ladd wasn't an option for my Week 7 lineup.
Why I kept Bernard in
Germie Bernard had scored 25.7 for me in Week 6. I thought he had a stable role, and I wanted consistency.
Cooper had also scored 22.3 outside my lineup that week, so it wasn't that I hadn't noticed his breakout. I still kept Bernard in. I liked Douglas for his upside too, but adding him didn't mean I was immediately starting him.
That didn't work out on points this week. Bernard scored 5.7, while Cooper had 22.5 and Douglas had 21 outside my starting lineup. Those points didn't count toward the win.
The reason I kept Bernard in was what I thought about his role before the games, not how those three scores turned out afterward.
The other pickups
Douglas was an upside pickup. He had played 51 offensive snaps in each of his first two games, out of 56 and 59 team snaps. I liked that playing time when he was available and thought there could be opportunities on a Miami team I expected to be trailing. That was my read going into the week. His 21 points came afterward.
I also added De'Zhaun Stribling and Seth McGowan on October 21.
Stribling was an IR stash. I thought San Francisco's receiver room was thin. He was a rookie on IR with the 49ers, but his return date wasn't certain. The 49ers had put him on IR in September after ankle surgery, and Kyle Shanahan's estimate then was close to 10 weeks of recovery, not a return in Week 10.
McGowan was a bet on what could happen if Jonathan Taylor were traded. The Colts listed him directly behind Taylor on their Week 7 depth chart, ahead of DJ Giddens. I thought McGowan could get a big role if Taylor left, but that depended on a trade happening. It wasn't a guaranteed workhorse job.
Neither pickup was in my Week 7 scoring lineup. McGowan had 5.8 outside it, and Stribling had zero in the matchup record.
My Week 7 scoring lineup
- QB: Jared Goff, 22.02
- RB: Chase Brown, 9.8; Woody Marks, 9.1
- WR: Zay Flowers, 27.7; Carnell Tate, 9.9; Germie Bernard, 5.7
- TE: Brock Bowers, 13.3
- Flex: Dallas Goedert, 9.8; Tony Pollard, 36.5 through the autosub
- K: Spencer Shrader, 3
- Defense: Cleveland, 6
Cooper, Douglas, Mike Washington Jr. and McGowan were outside that scoring lineup, along with McConkey on bye, Hall inactive and Stribling on IR.
How it went
Pollard, Flowers and Goff gave me 86.22 points between them. Bowers added 13.3, and the rest of the scoring lineup brought the total to 152.82.
Brown and Marks both finished below 10. Tate and Goedert were just below it too, at 9.9 and 9.8. Bernard didn't repeat his Week 6 score. It was still enough to finish 57.02 points ahead.
So it was another win, with a big contribution from an autosub and two strong scores that stayed outside my lineup. The result went my way even though the Bernard decision didn't give me the most points.
Lineups, transactions and fantasy scores are from my Sleeper league records. The reasons for the moves are my recollection of what I was thinking before the games.