Last night's huge matchup played out largely as expected, except for one big miss: the Cowboys merely eked out the win. Credit Detroit's defense for limiting Dallas to 20 points, despite the Cowboys reaching field-goal range in seven of their 10 drives. And credit Dallas for limiting the damage when the Lions pushed deep into their territory.
I shared with one reader yesterday that only three of the top 14 preseason players (based on ADP) have come close to meeting or exceeding expectations. Although I lost in the fantasy playoffs, I probably never would have reached the postseason if I'd drafted, say, Nick Chubb in the first round instead of CeeDee Lamb.
CeeDee's receiving line stands at 122-1,651-10. For context, Justin Jefferson finished last season with a 128-1,809-8 line, which earned him a near-universal overall-1 ADP this summer. It's not too soon to talk up CeeDee as a potential top-two overall pick next year.
One more thought on yesterday's contest. Tony Pollard apparently wasn't healthy earlier this season. But that doesn't explain his fantasy collapse these past three games, as he's hit 7.7, 5.3, and 5.9 points. A year or two ago, I shared some of my research on the relationship between college RB workload and NFL fantasy production. As subscribers know, I tagged Pollard as a fade this summer, because RBs with his sparse college workload are one-hit wonders if they're lucky. Most flop.
The most productive RBs with less than 300 career college touches were Chris Ivory, Justin Fargas, Peyton Barber, Kenny Watson, and Alfred Blue. Ivory's career fantasy-point total is roughly double that of the other four on this list. And Pollard is on pace to pass Ivory by early next season.
But . . . Pollard's already at 288 touches this year. He's never come close to this total, especially not in college, where he topped out at 117. Unless he defies historical patterns, he'll be an unstartable fantasy commodity within a year or so. If you have him in dynasty, I'd advise selling high now (or as high as you can). It's not only about Pollard's durability. It's also the reality of a franchise that won't wait patiently for their soon-to-be 27-year-old to break through again. They have too much RB depth and too much of a win-now culture to keep him as their bell cow for much longer.
As for today, I'm around this morning to bounce around anything you've got. Good luck.