Welcome back. I can’t believe I’m writing this right now. It feels so good. New website, same blog. Breaking down each match-up each week without missing a beat. This week we saw it all – love, hate, heart break, joy, pain, etc. Ladies and gentleman, for the first time of your 2020 season of The League, let’s get into it.
Me v. Andrew
Oh man. We’re starting HOT. The last two reigning champs. The two hosts of League Talk – the official podcast of The League. The scheduling gods truly blessed us with such a perfect week one match up. Imagine all of the content. This has gotta be a shootout, right? Match-up of the year? WRONG. Me by a zillion. In case you forgot, I’m nice with it.
What went right for me? Well aside from the fact that this is fantasy football and I’m me, Dalvin Cook certainly didn’t disappoint. “No Brendan, don’t take him even though he fell to you at the 8th pick he’s injury prone.” Yeah maybe but he got me 21.3 points. Dak produced 17.64 points which is eh from your starting QB, especially someone of his caliber. To be fair to Dak, a deeeeep pass to Gallup at the end of the game was stolen from him in a nonsense OPI call. That could’ve led to a game winning touchdown, which would’ve given me more fantasy points and happiness as a Cowboys fan. Whatever. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. It doesn’t matter because I drafted Calvin Ridley and he was in my starting lineup. 9 receptions, 130 yards, 2 touchdowns. I’ll give you a second to do some math. Yep, that’s right, 29.4 points. Nice! Am I worried that no one else on my team did well? I probably should be but I’m riding pretty high to be honest. Nick Chubb is going to be an issue if he doesn’t get it together. Chris Herndon stinks but that’s what happens when Jets are on my team (ie, the Robbie Anderson debacle of 2019). Another year drafting Marlon Mack another year of a horrible injury. Poor guy’s career is in trouble.
Enough about me, let’s move onto the champ. Let’s just say he won’t be the champ come January unless some major changes are made. Did someone say rebuild? What went wrong? Well Carson Wentz is his quarterback. That’ll do it. Oh man does Carson Wentz stink. Two (2) interceptions. I love it. Miles Sanders, who Andrew sheepishly drafted, was ruled out so Todd Gurley got the start. This probably worked out better for Andrew since Gurly dropped a decently solid 12.7. Alan Robinson gave him 9.8 points which is the most Alan Robinson point total I’ve ever seen. We went into Monday Night Football with me leading by about 40. Andrew had Derrick Henry and AJ Brown going. I was confident, but those two, likely led by Henry, could definitely pull it off. I was pissed because the Titan’s game was on at 10:10 and ya boy’s gotta work, but I went to sleep at the start of the forth quarter with victory all but assured. Henry dropped 14.6, which is fine, but you need more from your first round pick. AJ Brown did nothing. Robert Woods did pretty well for Andrew much to my dismay against the Dallas football Cowboys. No matter. I am back. Beans 122.9 – Andrew 104.5
Brent v. Abie
Well, well, well this is an interesting match-up. These are two teams that both want to take the next step this year. Brent has been consistently solid but hasn’t been able to make a deep playoff run. Abie had a poor year last year. I don’t remember what he did in 2018, I know he didn’t win though ;). Unfortunately for Abie, he is picking up where he left off last year. Blowout alert!
Brent’s team looks good. He was on edge all Thursday and Sunday. Like, he was super pissed the whole day. I assumed he was losing but he won by 15,000 points. He managed to overcome a not so great zero points from Chicago D/ST (our first goose egg alert!) through standout performances from Zeke, Chris Carson and Julio Jones. Damn who let Brent get all these guys, those are some big fantasy names. Will Fuller had his annual good week and gave Brent a nice 15.2. Bench him now, Brent, it’s all downhill from here. Kennan Allen didn’t do what he should’ve done, but, hey, sometimes I don’t either, it’s all good.
I don’t mean to be hard on Abie. He didn’t do that bad, he wasn’t the lowest scoring team of the week or anything, he just so happened to play Brent who went nuts. Mahomes didn’t drop his usual 75, but getting 20.4 points from anyone won’t kill you. Mark Andrews is an absolute monster, giving Abie 20.3. Aaron Jones with a nice day. Abie wanted more from Drake. Cooper and Lockett were pretty average. The real debacle came from Brandin Cooks, Evan Engram and 49ers D/ST. Brandin Cooks just really stinks. No other way to put it. All I hear all off season long ever year is how great Evan Engram is but he just doesn’t preform. He is CANCELLED. San Francisco had an abysmal day. Just really ugly. He’ll bounce back, but not a great start for the East Side resident. Brent 142.1 – Abie 110.9
Lebron v. Alex
These two guys love to party. Just look at Alex’s lei. Only one of them was going to be popping champagne come Monday night though, or Tuesday if you didn’t want to stay up until 1:00 am watching the Broncos and Titans like me. Who sipped the bubbly? Just look at the color’s of the text of their names above their pictures! Alex, duh!
Last year Alex scored 100,000 points a week but his opponents always scored 100,001. It was tough. He had Lamar. He had it all. It just didn’t come together for the kid. Josh Jacobs said, “Alex, I don’t want you to hurt anymore.” He dropped 33.9. Almost 34! Mosert, who I was very skeptical of said, “Shut up, Brendan.” He dropped 23.1. Adam Thielen did well too but he’s boring so he didn’t say anything. Alex got 14.0 points from Kelce who he drafted in the second round. Alex had a shitty performance from OBJ, but, I mean, we all knew that was coming. I would be remiss to not mention Zane Gonzalez. I can’t tell you who had what kickers last year, but I do not Abie had Zane because I wrote about it every week. Partly because he was the best player on Abie’s team, mostly because he has a cool ass name. He gave Alex 6.0 points which isn’t good but he has a dope name so I’m sure Alex forgives him. He also won by a zillion.
Lebron talks a lot of trash. More than anyone I’ve ever seen. I respect it. It’s his thing. Maybe he’ll cool it after getting blown out this week. Probably not, though. He made the right move in starting Big Ben over Brady. Lebron has Christian McCaffreyy. Christian McCaffrey did Christian McCaffrey things. How did he lose? Because everyone else on his team is on his team. James Conner. Ooooffff. Mark Ingram? Now we know why everyone was high on Dobins. AJ Green? Not great. Tyler Higbee, who Lebron has called Tyler Higsby for the last two weeks, terrible. If I’m Lebron I am in panic mode. Alex 148.08 – Lebron 98.9
Kris v. Ryan
This was a fun one. Kris is consistently one of the best teams year after year. It must be in the water in the pond behind his house. Ryan has yet to put together a truly competitive team, but he is determined this year to breakout. Or at least to avoid whatever the yet to be determined punishment will be. I wasn’t too high on Ryan’s team after he drafted six wide receivers in a row but he scored more than I did this week so I guess I figured out my draft strategy next year. Scoring more than doesn’t mean Ryan won, though. That was all Kris. Let’s dive into it.
Kris enjoyed certified wackjob performances by Russell Wilson, DeAndre Hopkins and Devante Adams. Goddamn what a receiving core. My old friend David Johnson came back from the dead like it’s goddamn Night at Museum and gave Kris 18.4. He must hate me. Everyone else did really bad, so keep an eye on that. Barkley stinks, Cooper Kupp stinks, Hayden Hurst … you guessed it, stinks. Doesn’t matter when you get the performances you got out of your QB and receivers.
Ryan stayed in contention all week. There was a moment when I thought he had a chance on Monday night. Imagine if Ryan came back on Monday and beat Kris? Oh man. Maybe next time. Ryan benched Aaron Rodgers for Matt Ryan which cost him seven points, if it makes him feel better he still would’ve lost. Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Ryan’s first pick, had a really nice pro debut. JuJu decided to be good again after a stint on my team last year where stunk. DK Metcalf, who Ryan got clowned a bit for taking in the forth round, had a nice day too. Ryan’s biggest issue is going to be Joe Mixon. He stunk it up in week one and I just don’t see him becoming a factor. Marvin Jones Jr. didn’t do too hot and that was without Kenny Golladay playing, so that’s not a great sign. If Ryan started Hines over Mixon he would’ve won, but, to be fair, why would he have done that? No one likes a Tuesday night fantasy owner. Kris 144.4 – Ryan 132.7
Jack v. Max
This was as boring of a match-up as they come. That’s a good way to entice my readers to keep going, right? Both did fairly well. Max just happened to do 19 points better. It must be the googles.
Jack had a nice day from Josh Allen. Jeez that guy is good. Poor Max. The kid is a die hard Jet’s fan and had to watch them get torched by Allen, who is on his fantasy opponents team. It didn’t matter though because no one else on Jack’s team did much. Saints D/ST did well. Jonathon Taylor had a pretty good debut. Ekeler stinks. Michael Thomas stinks and is hurt. DJ Moore stinks. Kittle stinks. I’m sorry I don’t have more to say than that but they just didn’t do well. Here’s a take – Jack needs his team to do better.
Max, Max, Max. This guy lowkey always puts together solid teams. He won the Lamar sweepstakes and he did well. When you draft Lamar you expect some truly eye popping weeks and that wasn’t what we got this week, but I’m sure it’ll come. Kamara said, “what contract issues?” He had a day. Jamison Crowder had a really solid 21 point day. Jets receivers truly only do well when they’re not on my team. Max has some red flags – Gronk, Cam Akers and Mike Evans. Yes, yes, yes I know you took a statistics class in college and you’re thinking that one week is a small sample size and doesn’t mean anything. Cool you know numbers real good. I’m just saying if Max wants to keep his name in the green than he should be a bit worried. Sounds like a problem for Thursday night, though. For now, Max can go to sleep a champion. Max 130. 0 – Jack 111.9.
Best Team: Alex (148.08)
Worst Team: Lebron (98.9)
Best Player: Josh Jacobs (33.9)
Worst Player: Bears D/ST (0)
I’m just so happy we’re back. I really am. This is just so much fun. Setting lineups, scavenging the waiver wire, proposing trades, rejecting trades, not texting people back about trades, watching mostly terrible Thursday Night Football, being glued to the TV for 10 hours straight on Sundays,doing math on Monday’s, doing the pod, writing this. I love it all. I’m so happy that football is back I could come in last place this year and I wouldn’t complain. I’m just kidding. This is war.
Will Lebron crack triple digits? Is Ryan’s team legit? How will Jack respond to losing Michael Thomas? Can Abie get on track? Can Andrew rebound? Oh man this is going to be a crazy season. Week two begins in 22 hours and I can’t wait. Until next week, friends.
Must Be Sunday 