The Truth About TNF for Fantasy
Two things that I see in multiple fantasy football groups every single week throughout the season are 1) never start a TNF player in your flex and 2) don’t start a TNF player at all. Number 1 is accurate. I won’t spend too much time with this one. Basically, if you are planning a player on TNF, move him out of the flex and into his actual position. This will maximize your pivot options for any potential injury or COVID between Friday and Sunday. It might take 1 time of learning the hard way before you fully understand but that’s all there really is to it.
My main point, and the reason for this article, is to show you that it’s safe to play your players on Thursday night in general. Everyone has in the back of their mind that players just don’t perform on Thursdays. Whether it’s the short week or prime time jitters or whatever the reason may be. That is simply not true. Don’t get me wrong, there will be dud games but even Sundays have dud games. Let’s take a look at some stats and numbers from the TNF games from this previous season.
Week 1 opened up with the Dallas Cowboys traveling to Tampa to take on the reigning champs. Not only did TNF produce fantasy-relevant, but three WRs from that game also finished the week as WR1s (12-team). Amari Cooper (WR2), Antonio Brown (WR9), and CeeDee Lamb (WR12). Both of the game’s QBs were QB1s as well as the week’s number 1 overall TE. We’re off to a great start!
Week 2 gave Sterling Shepard and Terry McLaurin owners one of their better weeks of the season. Terry finished as WR3 overall while Sterling was a low-end WR2 but that’s what he was drafted to be. JD McKissic put together a solid game and Daniel Jones gave you 95 yards and a TD on the ground. So while this week didn’t feature a lot of star power, it still gave you some fantasy relevance in deeper leagues.
Week 3 was our first 1 sided score of the TNF slate. Sam Darnold put up 2 rushing TDs on the ground while both DJ Moore and Brandin Cooks finished as low-end WR1s (WR12 and WR11, respectively). Unfortunately, this was the week that CMac went down so he didn’t deliver what we wanted. That goes as an argument against me.
I’ll speed run the next couple of weeks. Week 4, James Robinson had 2 TDs, Uzomah had 2 TDs, Boyd went 9 receptions for 118 yards. Week 5 gave us both Rams WRs (Woods and Kupp) and DK Metcalf going over 15 PPR points while Lockett had a respectable 10. Week 6 we finally get some RB love with Leonard Scorenette touching paydirt twice. Antonio Brown had himself another WR1 worthy TNF game and Jalen Hurts gave you 2 rushing TDs on the other side. We even had a potential TE streamer in OJ Howard finish as the TE5 on the week.
The pattern and trend just continues. Will there be some dud games? Of course. But those games can happen on Sundays too. As you can see, most of the names I’ve mentioned are names that are drafted and rostered but they get second-guessed because of the day of the week they play on? It makes zero sense. Don’t pick up what I’m not putting down. I’m not saying to center your week around TNF players, I’m just saying don’t be scared to play them, especially your “studs”. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
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