Edit: I failed to mention that despite my win, I arguably made two of the worst moves of the week, losing points by grabbing Cole Kmet (was gonna go for Uzomah but for some reason didn’t want to double up on Bengals even though they’re legit this year) and Randy Bullock (11 points is solid for a kicker to be sure, but the G-Man Graham Gano won out for this week). Just wanted to make sure I’m not covering up my own mistakes while pointing out yours. Thanks!
Big doings happening here at Must Be Sunday, huh? It looks like we’ve gone “public” and had our biggest day of traffic on the site ever after some structural renovations, which is great to see. Don’t be alarmed though, we’re still the same guys doing the same shit for your entertainment for absolutely free. There is still much work to be done before we become the top result on Google when you type in “fantasy football”. That said, welcome to anyone who’s new here. Things may be a bit confusing at first if you’re not in The League, but if you know us (or even if you don’t) then the storylines should catch on easily enough. You may even pick up some strategy when it comes to bidding on waiver wire heroes and horrorshows, who knows?
This week was a special one to be sure. Not even bringing points into the equation, we had the second-highest percentage of player pick-ups to start in the following game (17 players for 70.83% vs. Week 4 with 10 players for 71.43%) AND the second-highest percentage of those players who got the immediate start helping their new team to a win (8 players [all positions] for 33.33% vs. Week 3 with 4 players [D/STs, Ks & Emmanuel Sanders] for 40%). There were also some pretty slim win margins this week, which makes some of these acquisitions that much more important. Wait, picking up free agents and spending your FAAB on players is actually important? Of course it is, you jabroni! That’s why we do what we do here at The Wire. Let’s take a look at some match-ups:
Max vs. Beans: Very helpful that the highest spender of the week also had one of the closer games of the week so that I could kill two birds with one stone. For the second week in a row our Southern Man was embodying the Big Baller Brand, spending $27 (which is the second lowest top bid, not including my $4 for Todd Gurley in Week 1 lmaoo) and beating out a different BBB: Beans, Brad and Brent. I bet Brendan really wishes he could rethink his bid for this one and add an extra Hamilton, because even though it’s well-known that he rarely spends big bucks on position players (and is a loyal reader of this column so knows not to go too crazy on any one bid) that 23.8 point return would have eclipsed the 12.44 point deficit he lost by and kept him one game further away from working on his stage presence and mic-holding stance. I always like to end on a bright note for those who fell into unfortunate circumstances though, and Max’s recent spending spree all but ensures that Beansie will be able to out-bid him for the rest of the season (unless he trades for some FAAB). Plus it seems like Max short-circuited on the Add/Drop side of things, settling on O.J. Howard (1.4) and sticking with Tim Patrick (2.6) instead of holding onto Robert Tonyan (14.3) and Bryan Edwards (11.8), which goes to show that things are shakey despite the win. Maybe start cracking some jokes on-air to practice for us. Lastly, the Beans Corp. hire of Derek Carr was the first time this season that someone spent money on a QB, so that’s exciting for me.
Vigs vs. Tom: We knew from the draft that this week was gonna be tough for the Buffalo Bonez, with his first three picks in the draft on a bye. Our Fearless Commish went over this a bit in his Power Rankings from earlier today, but I’d like to emphasize just how close Tommy was to pulling off the W despite being short-staffed (just like the rest of the country/world, ooh he’s political). If Vigs left the nearly 30 points he got from Corey Davis and Khalil Herbert on the bench and these events I’m about to describe happened differently than in our timeline, there’d be a lot of stomping around and yelling coming from Apartment 3B/Meriwether Trail since he was up there this weekend. Maybe in the alternate timeline he was here, so I’m keeping it. A respectable 8.1 points from Ricky Seals-Jones, along with the pebble in Ryan Succops’s cleat and the Ravens Defense looking more scary than the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name are the deciding factors in this battle between former Congers residents. You really would not expect any of those to decide a game for you, but this is The League, where anything is possible if we look at it close enough. Tommy Boy’s smart move of picking up Devonta Freeman for a solid 11.4 also ended up being for naught, as it looks like he’s already back off the team. Hopefully your starters had a nice rest-up during their bye and are ready to come back with a vengeance.
Kris vs. Ryan: It looks like Ryan finally got the memo to start spending some FAAB and is wheeling and dealing out here. Don’t worry buddy, you’re not behind or anything, and your team has been doing pretty solid without the money moves. You dropped to second-highest budget in The League after Vigs (lots of “second” things this week, maybe it was because I’m second in the Power Rankings lol) after you held the title of Most Leverage for Week 6. Most importantly keep doing your thing, don’t let this one close loss and two small waiver missteps get you down, and if you want more players with “III” in their name, I heard Robert Griffin and Golden Tate are available ;). For context, newly-minted Martians Henry Ruggs III ($11, 5.1 pts.) and Mecole Hardman ($7, 2.8 pts.) were outscored by the newly-grounded Earthlings, Big Play Slay (8.8) and Kenny Gains (12.1). Refraining from making these moves would have kept King Marzy at the top of the Budget Pie and out of the L column for this week, but instead the Norse Horse pulled ahead by a 5.14 point nose. Kris, you staved off the hungry dog for this week, and it’s undisputed that you’re doing the best out of anyone in terms of net points from add/drops (see the Waiver Report at the bottom), but long-term trends sometimes speak louder than current-season stats.
I’d like to direct everyone’s attention to the chart below, which maps Kris and Ryan’s total games above and below .500 through the past three seasons. I finally added the 2020 records and it’s super interesting to get that birds-eye view of our performances over time. This is my personal favorite 2-team comparison (it’s crowded with all 10 teams on one chart so I played around with the filters), but it’s also super pertinent in the wake of this week’s match-up.
Is Ryan a force to be reckoned with?
Did Kris miss his chance to win a championship?
Will we see these lines cross this season?
Only time will tell…
OK. Gonna wrap up with a few oddities since the other two match-ups were blowouts and therefore the moves made were not super consequential. You can see the chart at the top if you’re really fiending for more.
So Ryan picked up Ryan Tannehill this week, and if it wasn’t freaky enough that they have the same name, the Tennessee slinger scored (19.40) his exact projection (19.40). You’re not seeing double, don’t attempt to adjust your picture, this actually happened.
Last but not least, any post about this season would be incomplete without a Brad mention. We must both be Jay-Z fans, because we landed at a point differential for this week of 44:4. The real reason for the mention this week though is what I’d imagine is the last possible surprise I could possibly see when I open up the Offers Report. You may have already noticed it in the chart at the top, if not I’d recommend you go look at it quickly. You may be wondering, “How did Ryan get Henry Ruggs III for $11 when Brad offered $12?” Then you might assume that, like in previous weeks, Brad promised the drop the same player in more than one transaction and once Jalen Reagor was was dropped for Emmanuel Sanders it was deemed null and void. Close, but no. It turns out that once Waylon’s Doggie Daddy paid $18 for the E-Man on his bye week, he didn’t even HAVE $12 to spend! Therefore, the reason becomes “Acquisition budget would be exceeded.” This is true, check it out on the website. I’m not sure who would have had the tiebreaker if both he and Ryan bid $11, which is all Brad has left, but I’m pretty certain at this point Brad’s just trying to spend all his FAAB so that I’ll shut the fuck up about it. Well you’re in luck, because even though I’ll still be covering your add/drops for the rest of the season, I’ll be shutting the fuck up for this week right now.
This has been The Wire, Happy Halloween, enjoy your treat.
Must Be Sunday 