Curtis Patrick covers the biggest topics in dynasty fantasy football in his weekly series, Dynasty Command Center.

I am so excited about re-launching the Dynasty Command Center series. This is what I love. It’s going to be my signature series.^[1]In a hat tip to my partner Blair Andrews and his excellent series The Wrong Read, I’m going to start numbering these sequentially.

I think the writing will be most interesting and most useful if I stay away from a set template or formula – so I’m just going to write whatever I want about dynasty fantasy football every week. I might share what stood out to me in the previous week’s NFL games and news cycle. I may touch on player development, value, and rankings changes. I’ll occasionally include notes about how I’m performing in my dynasty leagues and the moves I anticipate making next. There’s a lot of leeway here, so who knows what else I’ll touch on over the course of the year(s).

Thanks for indulging me. Let’s talk dynasty.

Dynasty Command Center, No. 1.

Tyreek Hill and the Importance of Dynasty Diamonds

“It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.”
― Dolly Parton

In dynasty fantasy football, the community spends all offseason trying to unearth potential gems. Potential gems might be found by collecting players who have popped in limited work but just need more opportunity. Others may be discovered in mining for players who seem like good bets to benefit from being paired with a new quarterback or offensive coordinator. More may be sifted from the chaff by scooping up players who haven’t been able to stay healthy, but maybe this year is the year.

The danger in getting too caught up in all of the collecting and mining and sorting and sifting is that the game can become about the game within the game instead of the actual game itself. The game itself is about winning.

It’s a lot easier to win if you have some diamonds on your roster. You can buy a lot of 10 rhinestones and hope the jeweler missed a diamond in the bunch. Or you can just buy a certified diamond. Of course, the latter is more expensive – but it’s also actually a diamond – instead of improbably, but possibly, being a diamond.

The thing is, that even among diamonds, there are grades. In talking players, there is no diamond more pure or spectacular than a pre-age cliff wide receiver under contract for several years who is tied to a young, elite quarterback who is also under contract for the long haul.

In Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season, some of the purest dynasty diamonds sparkled most brightly. Let’s review three who caught my eye.