Haibo Does Data: Week 2, 2024

Hello everyone – welcome to Week 2 of the column! The craziness and unpredictability of fantasy football is back! Almost none of the games went the way I thought they would go and we’re here to dive more into the data. For even more strategy and tips – check out our weekly SmashUp Review: SmashUp Review

This week we’re joined by Steve Bulanda of Rotowire so definitely check that out if you have some time.

Week 2 is officially in the books and what a wild week it was! 8 of the 16 games this week were upsets including some huge ones by the Raiders, Vikings, and Falcons. Let’s jump right in with the most popular player picks from Week 2 for SmashUp.

Players by Position

We continue to see a lot of folks spending most of their player budget on the RB/WR players – with top picks Kupp, CeeDee, Tyreek, and Amon-Ra alongside Saquon and Breece Hall. Many people were going for the hot hand with Dobbins and he delivered with 131 yards and a TD. With all the upsets, we expected a lot of the defense picks to go bust this week but the #1 most selected defense was the correct one – the Chargers as they put away a bad Panthers team. We do however see Baltimore and Dallas in those top 5 most picked defenses which did not work out well – especially if they tried pairing Defense Wins Championships with those teams.

Regarding cards – here are the top 10 played cards last week and their corresponding prices.

We have a new #1 card in Starting WR this week. Last week’s #1 Human Vulture falls to #2. We saw a ton of defense cards last week and that also continues as Starting DEF, HOF DEF, and Defense Wins Championships all continue to see strong play in the top 10. But more people are focusing on passing stats as well, as we see Starting WR, All Pro WR, and Not So Wide Receiver all with strong plays as folks focus specifically on passing yardage as a stat category.

Let’s take a look at the top played combos.

We’re just switching receivers! Last week, we saw Tyreek Hill be involved in 3 of the top 10 combos – this week, it’s Cooper Kupp. Are we going to see Malik Nabers or Marvin Harrison Jr. next week take on this role?

After the dominance of defense stacking in Week 1, we see 3 top combos involving the Chargers defense this past week. That was a good call as they had a great game against the hapless Panthers. What you don’t see are all the combos involving the Cowboys and Ravens that pepper the top 50 that did not work out. Perhaps the most dominant pairing last week was Jayden Daniels + Scramble Spikes and we see a copycat effect as that is the #1 combo this week. Unfortunately, Jayden was not able to replicate his multiple touchdowns on the ground this week so this fizzled a bit.

In terms of strategy, we do continue to see some stacking around defense but it’s much less noticeable this week than last. Instead, the winning team took a spread approach with cards powering up QB, RB, and WR. We are seeing some field cards start to pop up as Home Field Advantage appeared in 4 of the top 20 lineups as folks picked only players playing at home that week to maximize the effect. As prices continue to shift (and there is an expectation of a big DROP in prices for many cards this week) – will we continue to see stacking Defense as a winning strategy or will there be some new approaches?

Only one way to find out – play Week 3 in SmashUp Sports!