2023 fantasy football is like the Oregon Trail and half your team has dysentery…

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by BetMGM:

• The injuries won’t stop
• QUICK HITTER: Best Bet for MNF
• Pete’s Weekly Wrap-Up: Calvin Ridley is back
• Zach Wilson shenanigans
• Overreaction Monday: Brandon Staley’s seat is HOT
• It’s 11/20. Take it away, Peter Overzet…

It would be really nice if the NFL script writers could find a thematic slant other than “demoralizing injuries” for at least a week or two.

Week 11 started off in brutal fashion on Thursday with both Joe Burrow and Mark Andrews getting placed on the shelf for the rest of the 2023 season.

This unfortunate trend continued unabated on Sunday with four key players exiting the game.

Here’s a quick rundown of the injuries and what we know now…

🚑️ Cooper Kupp (ankle)

After missing the start of the season, Kupp returned in red-hot fashion against the Eagles (8-118) in Week 5 and the Cardinals (7-148-1) in Week 6, but then cooled off considerably.

This Week 11 game vs. the Seahawks was supposed to be the bounce-back spot for him coming out of the bye.

Instead, he snagged one catch for eleven yards before suffering an ankle sprain (to the same one he had surgery on this offseason) in the second quarter and exiting the game.

Now we sit and wait to find out whether Kupp will be able to take advantage of the team’s juicy matchup vs. the Cardinals in Week 12:

🚑️ De’Von Achane (knee)

After a stint on IR, this was supposed to be the start of Achane’s big finish to his breakout season.

It wasn’t meant to be. He made it three snaps and one carry before injuring the same knee that kept him out the previous month.

Fortunately, it sounds like it was nothing too serious and the team was just being cautious:

🚑️ Kenneth Walker (oblique)

Walker suffered an oblique strain early in the Seahawks game vs. the Rams that Pete Carroll later called “legit.”

Considering Seattle plays on a short week Thursday vs. the Niners and Walker’s history of groin strains, it’s very unlikely he’s available in Week 12.

Zach Charbonnet will assume full bellcow duties until further notice. To make matters worse, Geno Smith (elbow) is also not a lock to play on Thanksgiving.

🚑️ Aaron Jones (knee)

Jones suffered a knee injury early in the Packers game vs. the Chargers yesterday and he did not return.

The bad news is that if you started him, you got 17 total scrimmage yards and nothing else. The good news is that he appears to have avoided a long-term injury:

For more uplifting news, read on for my Top 6 performers from Week 11 who actually scored points for your fantasy teams…

🏈 The Rivalry Of This Era, Yet No Bad Blood.

SOOOO many storylines, You Need to Calm Down...

It’s really hard to know where to start...a rematch of last year's Big Game...podcast hosts squaring off against each other...parents meeting for the first time...oh and let's not forget that these are two of the most talented teams in the NFL and among the betting favorites to make it back to the Big Game this year!

Despite all of those exciting storylines, you can still make this game more exciting with an incredible offer from BetMGM!

How incredible? Well with BetMGM's First Bet Offer, you can get up to $1,500 paid back in bonus bets if your first bet does not win.

How do I get started? It's simple:

• Sign up for a new BetMGM account
• Make your initial deposit
• Place your first bet

Speaking of first bets, see below for the team’s BEST BET for Monday Night Football!

PLACE YOUR BET

The Fantasy Life FREE Bet Tracker is already loaded with a handful of plays for Monday Night Football. Looking for a peek behind the curtain? Matthew Freedman and Matt LaMarca have chosen their side for tonight’s tilt…

Per LaMarca, across 20 games as either an underdog or when favored by less than 3 points, Patrick Mahomes is 15-4-1 against the spread (including playoffs). After beating the Eagles last season on a neutral field and coming off of a bye with Andy Reid, this is tough to pass up.

Peter is here to share his six big takeaways from Week 11. Take it away, Pete...

👐 Calvin Ridley, welcome back!

Ridley burst onto the 2023 season with a big Week 1 (8-101-1), but it’s been a disappointing year otherwise for the comeback WR who soared up draft boards after a buzzy preseason.

Things got back on track in a big way yesterday vs. the Titans with a 27.6 fantasy point outing and 2 TDs.

It’s hard to know why exactly consistent fantasy production has been tough to come by for Ridley this year, but he bizarrely plays much better with Zay Jones active.

Just know that if you are frustrated by the inconsistency, he doesn’t care what you think.

🥵 Tyreek Hill stays hot

It’s hilarious how easy Tyreek makes 30-point fantasy days look.

Even after briefly exiting the game with an injury, the No. 1 fantasy WR in the league dropped 10-146-1 vs. an overmatched Raiders defense.

He’s now on pace for an absurd 2,077 receiving yards.

🥇 Tank Dell is the fantasy rookie of the year

Puka Nacua looked like the breakout fantasy star early on, but Dell has recently surpassed him.

The impressive Texans rookie WR was hot on the heels of Ridley and Hill yesterday with an impressive 8-149-1 line vs. the Cardinals.

In a year where the first-round WRs have largely disappointed, Dell has been a true diamond in the rough. Watch this route and tell me he isn’t going to be carving up secondaries with C.J. Stroud for a long, long time.

🧨 Purdy & Aiyuk explode

The Niners took care of business yesterday vs. a weak Tampa Bay Bucs defense.

Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle also found the endzone, but it was specifically the Brock Purdy and Brandon Aiyuk connection that tortured Tampa Bay for the majority of the game.

Purdy finished with 333 yards receiving and 3 TDs, while Aiyuk turned his 5 catches into 156 yards and 1 TD.

He gets lost in the 49ers superstar shuffle, but we need to stop and appreciate what Aiyuk is doing this season:

🎉 Jaylen Warren, the new RB1 in town

The Browns-Steelers game lived up to the hype as an all-time awful game with only 23 total points scored, but Steelers RB Warren enjoyed his breakout game amid the terrible conditions.

He rushed for 129 yards and 1 TD on only 9 carries and chipped in 16 yards in the receiving the game.

Warren is now coming off back-to-back 100-yard rushing games and averaging over 9 yards per carry the past three weeks.

The opportunity cost of giving Najee Harris touches continues to mount.

👋 Barkley says, “Don’t forget about me!”

It’s been a minute since we got a vintage RB1 performance from Saquon Barkley. The degree of difficulty for such feats has greatly increased with Daniel Jones out for the season.

But Barkley defied the odds in Week 12 and delivered a league-winning day thanks to 83 yards rushing, 57 yards receiving, and 2 receiving TDs.

There’s been chatter that Barkley has lost a step, but considering he’s third in the league for most carries of 10+ yards over the last three weeks, it’s hard to say that’s the case.

🤦 The Zach Wilson experience in a nutshell. Yup.

🙌 Tony Pollard finally scored a TD! It’s time to celebrate.

📺 Everything you need to know from an action-packed Sunday. Ian breaks it all down.

🤣 This play-by-play announcer went off-script. Lmao.

✍️ A potential Super Bowl preview AND parents meeting for the first time? Everything you need for MNF betting and the DFS showdown slate.

🚿 Sam Howell deserves a hot shower after all those sacks. But he won’t get one.

🤝 When he scores, you score. Our favorite TD bet for Monday Night Football.

🗑️ Quentin Johnston has firmly entered bust territory. C’mon man.

📆 An update on Aaron Rodgers. That’s a big “if” though.

📈 Davante Adams had a nice TD yesterday. First time since Week 3.

🤢 Don’t watch this video. It’s every Kenny Pickett pass attempt.

We're humans who play fantasy football, so we are prone to overreact. Today, Kendall overreacts to injuries and the Chargers meltdown…

I usually write a long-ish intro here about what we learned from Sunday’s games.

Well, Jahmyr Gibbs continues to impress with another 20-plus point fantasy outing under his belt (even with David Montgomery back).

Here’s an even better stat for you: He has scored a rushing touchdown in his past four games, tying Kevin Jones (2004) and Barry Sanders (1989) for the longest streak by a Detroit rookie, per ESPN.

Trevor Lawrence gave us a reason to believe in him again, and Calvin Ridley too. I mean fantasy managers really needed this. 

Here’s the overreaction rant for the day: as a Seahawks fan, is there anything worse than going to a game in enemy territory and losing in one of the worst ways possible???

The answer is NO.

Doing the sad walk back to the car with my (awesome) Tyler Lockett throwback jersey while listening to “Whose House? RAMS’ HOUSE.” This was the worst.

Anyway, let’s overreact some more…

🚑️ The injuries won’t stop, but don’t give up

Holy. Crap. I mean, I feel like we say this every single year, but this feels like a much more injury-riddled season than years past, and just a few days ago we had two more blows.

No one was starting Deshaun Watson at this point, but there was some hope that he could get things cooking towards the back half of this season. A season-ending surgery to repair his right throwing shoulder not only downgrades the whole offense, but puts their playoff picture into jeopardy (even after their win against the Steelers yesterday).

Joe Burrow might have been the quarterback news that hurt the most. After starting the season slowly because of the calf injury, he will now miss the remainder of the season because of a torn ligament in his right wrist. Here is the list of quarterbacks out for the season:

• Aaron Rodgers (kind of)
• Kirk Cousins
• Daniel Jones
• Joe Burrow
• Deshaun Watson
• Anthony Richardson

MAKE. IT. STOP.

This isn’t an overreaction, but more of a plea. Don’t give up on your season just yet — we could be surprised with some quarterbacks still on the waiver wire.

I know, I know, there are not many secrets out there for QBs to go and get, but you can also package up some pieces from your team to try and salvage any trade too, especially if you have a decent shot at making the fantasy playoffs. 

♨️ The seat is hot for Brandon Staley

I always talk about how teams with a ton of talent need to rise to the occasion and play like it. Well, the Chargers are continuing to find ways to be disappointing and it’s time to turn to Brandon Staley for real answers.

Let’s talk about the talent — you can’t lose this many games with a superstar quarterback like Justin Herbert. Then we can add in Keenan Allen, Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa and Derwin James. 

Then there was this mini-meltdown in the postgame press conference (yikes). This should be a team we should routinely see in the playoffs and one that should take games against teams like the Green Bay Packers as easy wins. 

Since Herbert entered the league in 2020, he has 16,693 passing yards (2nd) and 113 touchdowns (4th) – all of this is being wasted.

The meltdown from Staley was after he was asked if he would continue calling the defense, which is fair. This is the same team that gave up a 27-0 lead against the Jaguars in the Wild Card round last year. This is the same team that came into Week 11 with the league’s 31st-ranked total defense and last-ranked passing defense. 

Oh yeah, and this is the team that just allowed Jordan Love to have a career-best 322 passing yards on Sunday. It’s time to stop wasting the talent on this Chargers team.

Sorry, Staley. 

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