Look at this fun little chart! Remember my long chart listing the teams back in Week 4’s Wire and the amounts spent and number of adds and drops? Well, this is just taking a look at that first metric in the form of a Tree Map. Hopefully you’re able to see the dollar amounts, but basically the bigger the logo the more FAAB has been spent on players of that team. Let’s break down the top 6, who account for $275 of the $506 spent so far this season:
Arizona Cardinals: Who would have thought they’d be the top dog in the NFL and right here in The League?? Bids for players of this team only started in Week 3, starting with Rondale Moore ($34) and Cardinals Defense ($10) by Brad and Beans. They played each other that week, you can guess who won. The very next week Brad dropped another $20 on AJ Green and kicked Rondale to the curb. $1 bids for Maxx Williams (Brad, Week 5) and Matt Prater (Abie, Week 7) round things out.
New York Giants: This one was surprising. A brutal loss to the Cowboys in Week 5 got some League members thinking they could get a steal on some G-Men in the following week. The most expensive player from this team was Devontae Booker (Max, $28). He also is currently the worst of all the Big Blue teammates who have been bought this season. Abie grabbed Sterling Shepard for $13 once he was ready to play in Week 2, but now he’s back on the bench and off the 69ers. Toney Tone had an impressive performance in the Cowboys game and still seems kinda viable if the Giants can keep from stinking the rest of the season, so the $8 investment from Beans Corp remains to be fully actualized. Finally, I grabbed Graham Gano for a few weeks and a few bucks. He’s gone now.
Carolina Panthers: Where were you during the Great Scramble for Chuba Hubbard took place? I was still recovering from Gov Ball, where I missed a whole week of games to stand in a parking lot, which was awesome. Our buddy Kris was thinking about how many points he’d need to get in order for the $41 of FAAB he dropped for the CMC back-up to be worthwhile. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been as many as he needs to get back to the domination he enjoyed in prior years, but it was a pretty good move in terms of knowing how much to bid and who to bid on, as we all know Kris is the free agent king. Now that he’s recovering from surgery, he’s got nothing but time… Also I bought the Panthers D for $3, because Panthers D is basically Sex Panther.
San Francisco 49ers: Elijah Mitchell was one of the first big bucks FAAB pick-ups of the year. And Brent immediately trades him, to Max, who also bought Trenton Cannon (-1.6 points on the season) for a buck, woof! In the games that Mitchell has played, he’s played pretty good! But the key phrase here “in the games that he’s played” is crucial. Another big purchase that goes hot and cold and doesn’t do much for your bottom line, aka the win column, aka what you need to win The League. The Niners themselves are having a rocky go of it, we’ll see if calmer seas are ahead for both organizations. Also, just this week, Beans picked up the SF D-Fence for $6 and got a perfect 6 point bang for his FAAB Buck. We love to see that on The Wire.
Las Vegas Raiders: Now for the team with the highest number of players on this Top 6 list, I’ll be listing off the list of players that helped the Raiders make this list, sponsored by Listerine: Week 3 – Daniel Carlson, 12 points (Kris, $5) Week 4 – Hunter Renfrow, 13.5 points (Abie, $11) Week 5 – Raiders D/ST, 4 points (Thomas, $7) Week 6 – Raiders D/ST, 10 points (Abie, $1) Week 7 – Derek Carr, 19.02 points (Brendan, $2) Week 7 – Henry Ruggs III, 5.1 points (Ryan, $11) The trades made by Kris and Abie resulted in wins, and are pretty clearly the best moves out of the bunch of those.
Cleveland Browns: Here we go, Brownies, here we go, WOOF WOOF! Max got D’Ernest Johnson for $27, which resulted in 23.8 points and a 12.4 point win against Beans. That’s pretty consequential, I would say. I got Demetric Felton for $6, I don’t wanna talk about it. Abie got the Defense in Week 2 for $4, they scored 5 but he won by 20 so it didn’t really matter. Boring team, last one I’m gonna talk about because this has taken way too long already for a little chart.
The NFL trade deadline is a few days a way. Yay. I guess. The NFL deadline is traditionally, by far, the most boring in all of sports. The week leading up to the deadlines in the MLB and NBA are jampacked with wild rumors and actual action. Remember, Scherzer confirmed to San Diego only to get shipped off to their rivals in LA? Wild! NFL – eh not so much. However, we can make the trade deadline a bit more fun when analyzing the fantasy implications of potential moves. Let’s get into it!
The first player that should be discussed is Allen Robinson II. Free this man! The Bears stink and he’s had pretty piss poor QB’s throwing to him his whole career. Blake Bortles, Chad Henne, Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles. Not exactly Murderers Row. Although they sure murdered the golden years of his career. ZING! Kris drafted ARob in the third round this year and, to put it mildly, hasn’t been worth that high of a pick. He is WR60 averaging a horrid 6.1 points a game. Robinson hasn’t scored more than ten points in a game yet this season. Surprisingly, he scored one touchdown in week 2. He only has double digits targets in one game and that was week one with frienemy of the company Andy Dalton slinging him the rock.
Where could Robinson find himself come next Wednesday morning? The Raider’s make some sense. Robinson would find himself leading a receiving core that would also be composed of Henry Ruggs, Hunter Renfrow and Bryan Edwards. Tight End Darren Waller is, of course, a major pass catcher for Las Vegas as well. Derick Carr would also certainly be the best quarterback ever throwing to the guy. That’s rough!
Henry Ruggs and Hunter Renfrow, rostered by Marzy and Abie, are the same player. They are WR’s 29 and 30 respectively. Both have two touchdowns in two different games. I have no doubt in my mind that Bryan Edwards is a nice guy but he isn’t fantasy relevant so I ain’t looking shit up about him, chief. Waller, who is now on Team Bones, is a huge name but has been rather quiet since a monster week 1. He too has found the end zone twice. A lot of things happen in Vegas – gamblin’, concerts, running into Mike Tyson, etc. Receiving touchdowns ain’t one of those things. Not that this means much – but only 2 of the 6 previously discussed touchdowns occurred during a home game! What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?
Throw Allen Robinson in the mix and what happens? Robinson’s value HAS to go up because it really can’t get any worse. On the flip side, it’ll take away looks from the three current Raiders we discussed. The biggest impact could be Thomas as he just traded for Waller. A couple more bad weeks and Waller will no longer be in the top 10 TE’s. We are a ten team league so analyze that how you will. We didn’t touch upon them, but Josh Jacobs and Kenyan Drake are also big pieces to the Raiders offense. Jacobs has five rushing touchdowns so far this season. Robinson will make the offense all the more dynamic and being able to get down easier into the red zone will simply lead to more Josh Jacobs touchdowns as the team clearly likes for him to rush it in as opposed to throwing it. Good news for Andrew as he looks to solidify himself as a top dawg in The League yet again. To summarize – good for Kris and Andrew. Bad for Ryan and Abie.
The Raiders are not the only possibility for Robinson! There are some common phrases / life rules that everyone knows -treat others how you want to be treated, look both ways before crossing the street and, of course, don’t draft anyone on the Ravens except Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews and I guess now Hollywood Brown. And what a compliment to Brown would Robinson be! Hollywood is currently rostered by Thomas. The Bone Man has enjoyed six touchdowns from Brown. Yes, that is as many touchdowns as Ruggs, Renfrow and Waller combined. I can do that math in my head! He’s WR6, can you believe that? Mark Andrew, on Marzy’s squad, is also extremely fantasy relevant. He’s currently TE2 averaging 13.6 points a week; however, he has one 36 point week, so take that average for what it’s worth. That game, in week 5, is the only one where he’s received double digit targets. HMMMMM. I think it’s clear that Robinson to the Ravens would be huge for Kris. Not great for Ryan. Not the best for Thomas either. Or is it?
How could I forget – Tommy Sweet Tooth has Lamar Jackson, DUH! Lamar has 10 passing and 2 rushing touchdowns through 6 games this season. Those passing touchdowns ain’t great. He has less than Teddy Bridgewater and Carson Wentz. Yuck! Yet, Lamar is still QB4 on the year. Adding in Robinson would almost surely see those numbers balloon. That’s an expression, right? So, to conclude, this trade would be HUGE for Kris and Thomas. I would get into the impact on running backs, but like my fantasy team, the Ravens are on the DEEP end of their RB depth chart after some heartbreaking injuries.
The block is hot with rumors that the Packers are shopping for a WR. Could the Bears make a trade to their historic rival? Hey, the Yankees and Red Sox traded with each other last year when Boston got Adam Ottavino and like eight years ago when the Yanks were dealt Stephen Drew. It’s not the craziest thing! Also, Robinson is a free agent at the end of the year, so who’s to say the Pack will re-sign him and will go on to torture the Bears for the next few years anyway? Well, I wouldn’t count on it. The two teams haven’t made a trade since 1999. As fun as it would be for Robinson to have Aaron Rodgers throwing to him, I don’t think this one happens.
You know who is, FOR SURE, going up to Green Bay? My main man Brandin Cooks. Another guy who needs to be freed from a very unfortunate situation. The Texans big time STINK. He recently expressed major frustration on twitter after Houston dealt veteran RB Mark Ingram to the Saints for a second stint in NOLA. Luckily for Brandin Cooks he is constantly getting traded. To recap his career – he was drafted by the Saints, traded to the Patriots for one year where he was traded to the Rams for two years where he was then traded to his current home in Houston. Wow – he joined the Pats for the 2017 season when they lost in the Super Bowl to the Eagles, then traded to the Rams who went on to lose the big game to the Patriots. Tough luck! He hasn’t been close to the promise land in Texas. He will get a shot at losing in the Super Bowl, or at least the Conference Championship game, in Green Bay.
Aaron Rodgers is better than Davis Mills. He is also better than Tyord Taylor. I do not need to expand upon that. Devante Adams is better than Brandin Cooks. I do not need to expand upon that, but for the sake of the article I should. Cooks is the guy in Houston. Like, he’s literally the only professional football player on the team. He is absolutely going to play second fiddle to Adams. Regardless, I like this move for Cooks fantasy value. The Packers are going to have the ball longer than the Texans will each game. Despite taking a step back in terms of his role to the offense, Cooks will find himself in a nice position. He will certainly be happier.
Like he often is in the National Football League, he was just traded in The League. Brent now proudly rosters Mr. Cooks after acquiring him from the comish. Brandin Cooks is a nice bench piece for Brent. If Cooper continues to sort of stink or if AJ Brown gets food poisoning again Cooks catching passes from Rodgers is a real nice option to have. I think Adams is so good that he won’t lost many targets, if anything Cooks better than Lazard and MVS, so Adams may have more red zone looks coming his way. Nice for Kris! Also nice for Kris is Aaron Jones will be in a slightly better offensive scheme. Maybe he gets a reception or two less? I wouldn’t worry about it. Also good for me as I am back on my bullshit with David Johnson. He will be the only recognizable player on this team once Cooks is outta town. Considering the Astros are about to lose the World Series, it’s a tough time to be a Houston sports fan.
While we are discussing the Texans and the NFL trade deadline how could I not write about Deshaun Watson? The most prominent trade rumor of the season has been him getting shipped off to Miami in exchange for Tua. Watson has not played a snap thus far in 2020. I believe he technically can be playing right now, but for obvious reasons it’s not the best look to let him on the field, to put it lightly. If he does get traded to Miami someone will pick him up. It won’t be Beans Corp, but someone will. While the Miami offense is unwatchable, this move would have some fantasy implications. There’s so much ugly shit out there with this guy that is sucks to have to seemingly dismiss it and just talk fantasy, but for the sake of the article I will do it quickly. Assuming he plays close to form, it’s good for anyone who rosters anyone on Miami. Brad with Waddle, Andrew with Mike G, Kris with Gaskin. Ugly situation in real life. Finally, not to beat a dead horse, but, especially without Cooks, Tua loses any fantasy small fantasy relevance he has by getting shipped to Houston. He’s not rostered by anyone now, but he is sometimes mentioned as a somewhat viable streamer.
That’s all I got. Defenders are going to be moved, but I do not have capacity to examine how that impacts D/ST’s. I’m signing off. Lets see what happens come 4:00 pm Tuesday! Go League!
P.S – Isn’t it weird Allen Robinson and Brandin Cooks were drafted in the same year? Cooks seems sooooo much older. Weird!
Today is two years from the first documented use of âMust Be Sundayâ according to my Timehop! While the phrase itself may only be two years old, the meaning behind those three simple words has existed among human beings for ages. Or at least since the NFLâs founding in 1920.
To make a short story even shorter – a number of members of The League were watching Sunday football, as we do. I took a snapchat video of the crew watching, bantering and bartering, etc, and and captioned it “Must Be Sunday.” When future students are studying the rise and fall of the American empire they will write a DBQ (document based question, I think?, for you non New York public school educated readers) comparing this moment to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The only difference is I don’t know how to write in script.
The time stamp says 5:03 pm. According to the old google machine – there were two games on during this slate on this historical day – the 7-9 Raiders in Houston to face the 10-6 Texans and the 6-10 Browns facing the 12-4 Patriots. What an old fashion sentence! Things done changed. I imagine we were watching the Texans game because my QB1 that year was the now seemingly bad-guy Deshaun Watson.
What a day for football this was! The 3-5 Chargers visited the 3-4 Bears and, naturally, the Bears, lost 17-16 on a last second missed Eddy Pineiro missed field goal. Total Bears move. We probably laughed a lot. I don’t remember. Sounds fund. The 4-12 Giants lost to the 3-3-1 Lions 31-26. Ooooffff! I must’ve loved this one. Don’t let the score fool you. The G-Men scored a garbage time touchdown to get to 26. Love it. Boring game, but for the sake of New York fandom, the 1-6 Jets lost to the 4-4 Jaguars 29-15. Minshew Mania, baby! Old reliable Adam Vinateri delivered an end-of-game field goal to deliver a 15-13 victory for the 5-2 Colts over the 2-6 Broncos. Although by the time the primetime game was on we probably all crawled out of the Vignali’s house like basement people to go see our families and drink water it was a marquee matchup that I’m sure we were excited about. The 7-1 Packers against the 5-3 Chiefs. Wow! Packers won 31-24. Major fantasy implications in this game!
On that note, lets discuss what happened in The League on the day of our nations founding. Beans Corp faced Country Roads, Take Mahomes AKA Kris. I needed this one but I didn’t get it despite good performances from Watson, Marlon Mack and JuJu. Again, what an old fashioned sentence! Derrick Henry only got me 6.7. 2021 DH would never dog me like that. My sworn enemy / life partner Robby Anderson gave me 6.3 because obviously. Just obviously. What a joke. Despite the hot start for David Johnson that year this was when he was either injured or just stopped playing football as he was on my bench with a goose egg. For some reason Jacoby Brissett was also on my bench. Kris’ team honestly had a mediocre showing but I got Julio’d and Patriots D/ST’d to death as both scored 20 points. Buns! I lost 112.7 – 110.9. BRUTAL! Because it is pre-2020 Kris had Todd Gurley, although he only put up 10 points. Jamison Crowder and Carlos Hyde were out there battling for Kris. He also had Darrel Henderson before it was cool, although he was riding the bench this week. Also on the bench was Miles Sanders who put up 21.3 points. My eyes burned when I read that as I roster the Eagles back this year. Nightmares!
Everybody Hates Kris aka Andrew faced Here’s To You, Mr. Robinson (Jack). I wonder if they knew that two years into the future they would be sharing a bathroom in the big city. The champ before he was the champ that year put up a monster 144.9 to Jack’s 125.1. For some inexplixable reason Andrew started rookie Daniel Jones, but it greatly paid off as he put up a rock solid 28. Andrew also naturally had a huge week from McCaffrey and an awesome 25 points from Edelman. Nice! Some old school names on Andrew’s roster include Philip Lindsay at RB2 and Duke Johnson on the bench. “Duke Johnson? Duke Johnson?” You know the rest. Jack came up short despite 36 points (!) from Tevin Coleman and 18 points from 49ers D/ST against Carolina. A measly 10 points from Kyler. Ugly! Jack started Tarik Cohen and Kerryon Johnson. How was this only two years ago?
Baby Chark Doo Doo Doo aka Lebron beat HockeyPro69 aka Abie 137.2 – 113.1. Lebron enjoyed rock solid performances from Aaron Jones, James Conner and his team’s namesake DJ Chark. Also, Steelers D/ST dropped 15 points against Miami. Seems like a monster week for defenses. Leveon Bell had a horrible week for Lebron. Man, he has been so far from fantasy relevance. Lebron also gave scary Terry the start before he became truly scary. for so long now! I need to list Abie’s roster because it is SO 2019! Aaron Rodgers, Leondard Fournette, Jordan Howard, Michael Thomas, OBJ, DeDe Westbrook, Gerald Everett, Seahawks D/ST & Zane Gonzalez. Oh man, what a trip down memory lane. I genuinely haven’t thought about Jordan Howard or DeDe Westbrook in two years. I remember it was a thing on the pod that only Zane Gonzalez was good on Abie’s team that year. That held true this week as he dropped 11 points. Rodgers and Michael Thomas did well too. However, DeDe dropped a big fat goose egg. Classic!
Now We Cookin’ (Max) v. Baker MaySUCK (Ryan) was a true classic. Max dropped 189.3! What?! Ryan dropped a weak 94. Yikes! Ha – Max had Barkley, Dalvin Cook AND Ekeler. The first two combined for 49.9. Ekeler a meek 9.2. Aside from Robbie Gould who put up 9, Austin E is the only player who was in single digits! Yet another big week from a defense, as the Vikings dropped 13. Kenny G and Cooper Kupp scored 25.3 and 31.5, respectively. That halfway foreshadowed things to come. You know what’s happening with them this year. Ryan got 15.8 from Minseota Viking Stefon Diggs. Nothing else went right. Philip Rivers got the start and put up 10. Devonta Freeman gave Ryan 12. DeSean Jackson was on Ryan’s bench. Throwback!
Finally, The Flandrew’s (Brent) lost to Abraham Leider: Vampire Hunter (Alex). Our former member Alex needed this one. This was the year he kept scoring a lot but just couldn’t find a W. Luckily for him, Brent shit the bed this week and couldn’t crack 100. Alex won 137.8 – 99.9. Brent’s team has some current starters – Hopkins, Carson, Godwin and Waller. He also started Ty Johnson and Goff. Funny! You know what’s even funnier – Alex started MASON RUDOLPH. He also started Frank Gore. Gotta respect that. This was also the days of John Brown getting fantasy starts. Much to the chagrin of his brother, Alex got a nice 37.3 from Mike Evans. David Montgomery also had a nice week.
What a week for fantasy! Rockin’ and rollin’ and whatnot. What happened outside the football world on this historical day you ask? Thanks to Jack for sending me a link to a website that just lists things that happened each day. For some reason they didn’t include the start of Must Be Sunday, so take it with a grain of salt or whatever the phrase is I’m not even totally sure. There seemed to be a lot of news about ISIS, so that probably wasn’t good. Game 5 of the World Series took place that night. The Astros beat the Nationals 7-1 to take a 3-2 series lead. Thankfully, they would go on to lose the series to the Nationals. Soon-to-be Yankee Ace Gerrit Cole went 7 strong striking out 9.
Seriously, what a fun two years it’s been. Alex and Lebron are out, Brad and Thomas are in, but The League itself remains the same. Let’s see how different the NFL and fantasy football is two years from now. One thing I know for sure is Robby Anderson will be on my team and he will have just given me 6.3 points. He is going to turn me into the Joker. “That’s lifeee.”
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…
Let me know if you wanna see your personal chart or how you stack up with someone else in The League. I take Venmo, 50 cents a pop.
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.
The Ravens D helped Da Commish power his way to victory against The Buffalo’s with a historic -6 point performance
Iâd like to dedicate this opening paragraph to the Ravens D for allowing me to beat Bonez. -6 points is pretty hard to do, but you all picked the perfect week for a stinker. Iâd also like to thank the NFL schedule makers for putting Buffalo on a bye and forcing Tommy to pick up Baltimore. I couldnât have pulled it out this week without your combined efforts.
Now that I got that out of the way, itâs time to revisit our weekly power rankings. This is probably the least movement weâve seen in 7 weeks as teams start to distance themselves from the rest of the pack. Remember, these are only my opinion. Things may turn out very differently at the end of the season. So with that said, letâs get going with our 10 spotâŚ
10. South Jersey 4th & Schlong â Brad Peddito (Previous Ranking: 10) – See previous power ranking posts- For the sake of time, not going to go to in depth on this one. You all know why Bradâs team is ranked as low as it is. His team is perfect combination of just plain bad and decimated by injuries. He wonât be leaving the #10 spot for quite some time. Moving on.
9. Beans Corp â Brendan Cahill (Previous Ranking: 9) Let me paraphrase the late, great, former Mets manager Yogi Berra — âItâs getting late early around here.â Brendan must start winning some ball games and soon before he finds himself too far out of the playoff picture. Desperate times call for desperate measures and my sources are telling me Beanso is willing to trade coveted TE1 Travis Kelce in an attempt to overhaul his roster and turn this ship around. Will he find a suitor? Stay tuned. Anyway, week 7 was not kind to my podcast co-host, losing a backbreaker to Max. Down his RB1, it was the other RBs on Brendanâs squad that picked up the slack with Swift and Harries both going for over 20. Derek Carr filled in nicely for Justin Herbert and Brendan smartly played the Pats D against my New York football Jets. That game was a massacre. Where did it go wrong? Look no further than the garbage WRs crop Brendan had to trot out there. Robby Anderson, Courtland Sutton and Marquez Callaway all scored in the single digits, yuck. I like ya Beans, so Iâm rooting for a quick recovery for CMC. But something has to be done and quick to fix this mess.
#8. The Martians â Ryan OâConnell (Previous Ranking: 6) Fuckkkk. This one hurt to write. After a hot start, my man Marzy has suddenly gone ice-cold, dropping each of the last two games without cracking the 110-mark in either. A painful defeat to Kris has seen Ryan drop to below .500 and currently out of the playoff picture. The Bucs D played their little hearts out to keep Ryan in the game, forcing 6 (six) Justin Fields turnovers. Christian Kirk, Scary Terry and Tannehill also outperformed their projections in the defeat. Ryan was doomed by poor performances from the normally reliable Mark Andrews and Antonio Gibson, while surprising starters Henry Ruggs and Mecole Hardman played their way back onto the bench for next week. I guess I can say that Melvin Gordon was ok. Good, not great. Anyway, letâs see if Marzy has any tricks up his sleeve as he looks to upset the #1 seed Jack in week 8. Do you believe in Miracles?
#7. Waller Nothing â Max Cohan (Previous Ranking: 8) Alright, Iâll let you get your wisecracks out of the way. Yes, Max has a winning record. No, I donât hate Max. I love Max. But despite his early returns this season, I still donât think his team is better than any of the top 6 teams on this list, and these are my power ranking so what I say goes. Donât like it? I invite you to write your own. Anyway, he is 8th out of 10 in scoring after all. Besides Kamara, his RBs are Devonta Booker, Elijah Mitchell, Mark Ingram and Rashad Penny. Granted, to their credit, Booker and Mitchell has good games on Sunday and lead Max to victory over Beans, but Iâm sorry⌠I donât see Max having a deep playoff run unless he addresses that weakness. In a massive shakeup, Max is shipping out of town his namesake Darren Waller, along with Calvin Ridley, and taking in Mike Evans and Noah Fant. Well, Mike Evans sucks and Noah Fant is a downgrade from Darren Waller, so Iâm going to hand Maxwell a fat L on that one. I hope Iâm wrong, but when it comes to fantasy, I rarely am.
#6. Norse Horse â Kris Blaine (Previous Ranking: 7) Welp, we let it happen. Kris is officially back and out for blood. Well, back might be a bit of a stretch since he only scored 111 point this week, but it was still enough to beat Ryan in a low-scoring affair and double Krisâs winning streak to 2 games. Faced with a depleted roster from bye weeks and injuries, Kris ran the B squad out in week 7, rolling with Matt Ryan at QB, Hunter Henry at TE and Myles Gaskin at the flex. All three respectively met/exceeded their projections, so thatâs a good roster management right there. Who did not meet projections you ask? That would be Chubba Hubbard, Aaron Jones, Jarvis and Rams D. The last on is surprising considering they played the Lions, but Dan Campbell and his cocaine infused gameplan seemed to thwart whatever Los Angeles threw at them Sunday. Davante Adams and the rebirth of Leonard Fournette in Tampa are both fantasy studs and Nick Folk kicked a big 13 points to get Kris over the hump and into the W column. I like Krisâs team moving forward, especially with David Montgomery soon to return. Did we fuck up by not burying Kris when we had the chance? Letâs hope not.
#5. Buffalo Bonez â Thomas Antonello (Previous Ranking: 5) The Buffaloâs thankfully got DK Metcalfâd on Monday night and dropped their 3 straight after a hot start to the fantasy season. Iâm not going to punish Bonez greatly for this one however, as it was a tall order going against one of the best teams in The League (me) without 4 key players on byes, Austin Ekeler, Najee Harris, Justin Jefferson, and the Bills D. Things looked bleak for the Bonesâs after Noah Fantâs poor Thursday, but his Ravens duo of Lamar and Hollywood Brown linked up for a long TD and things turned around. Sadly, the rest of the Ravens werenât so kind for Tommy, their defense got blitzkriegâd by the mighty Bungals and took 6 points away from Tommyâs team total. I shouldâve had this one wrapped up, but then Mike Evans happened. It was destiny for this to happen to me. I talk a lot of shit about you Mikey, but you bested me on Sunday. Three (3) tuddies, including Touchdown Tommyâs 600th were nearly enough to pull off the upset. Iâd also like to thank Ryan Succop for blowing a gimme 30-yard FG in that same Bucs game, or else Iâd have been sweating it out even worse on Monday night. Anywho, Thomas now is the proud owner of one Calvin Ridley and Darren Waller, so letâs see if that is the recipe to get him back in the win column.
#4. HOCKEYPRO69 â Abie Leider (Previous Ranking: Tied for 1st) Sorry about this one Abie. After last weekâs unprecedented 4-way tie for the #1 spot, inevitably someone was going to have to be this weekâs big loser. In a Battle of the Titans, the 69ers laid their first real egg of the season, barely eclipsing the 100-point mark in a 60-point thrashing by Brent which dropped our man out of The Leagueâs top seed. Pat Mahomes was seeing ghosts as he and the Chiefs got their teeth kicked in by the real-life Titans. Fortunately, it appears he escaped that game with just a bad head bruise and will be good to go for week 8. Speaking of those Titans, Derrick Henry had a pedestrian game by his standards, mustering only 15 in that blowout win. DHop, Michael Pittman and Cardinals D all performed well and, as a Jets fan, I was encouraged by what I saw from Michael Carter, who was just about the only positive thing you can take out of that abysmal showing up in Foxboro. I think Julio Jones is suffering from a case of being too damn old to still be kicking in the NFL. The poor guy is constantly hurt or underperforming in a run-heavy Tennessee offense. Not all bad news for Abie, however, as it appears some of his key guys may be back this week to help a thin WR room. Jerry Jeudy, Sterling Shephard and perhaps Michael Thomas may all see action on Sunday. Fortunately, Abieâs got Beans Corp this week so I forecast only a one-week slip-up before he returns to his winning ways.
#3. Thomas and Friends â Andrew Vignali (Previous Ranking: Tied for 1st) Whew. Iâll be the first to admit that I barely skated by this week against a bye-week ravaged Tommy Bonez. Overall, my teamâs performance this week left a sour taste in my mouth, but a win is a win, so I wonât apologize. 121 points, a season low, was barely enough to squeak it out, but thatâs now 5 Wâs out of the last 6 for those scoring at home. I owe it all too my main man Jalen Hurts, fantasyâs #2 QB. Canât believe yâall didnât veto that trade. I donât think heâs a good QB, but he puts up a lot of garbage time points to churn out these overall solid fantasy numbers which is the only thing that matters to me, so in my eyes heâs a lock for Canton. He added a late touchdown in a blowout loss to the Raiders in a week I needed every point I could get. Speaking of those Raiders, I lost Josh Jacobs at halftime after he put up a big first half. Heâs on a bye this week so hopefully heâll be ready to go for week 9. Chris Godwin is a freaking stud and DK Metcalf did just enough (barely) on Monday Night to get me this win. However, my RBs took a hit as Darrell Henderson and Darrel Williams put out unusually poor performances. I still have ace in the hole Khalil Herbert so Iâm not too worried. Anyway, I got Brad this week (pencil me in for an easy dub) so Iâm already looking ahead to week 9 where I got a big matchup against the Nordics. Letâs keep the good times rolling.
#2. Jonathan Taylor Thomas 2.0 â Jack Staub (Previous Ranking: Tied for 1st) If the season ended today, the fantasy playoffs would run through Ardsley Drive. Thatâs sports banter for Jack is the #1 seed. Fortunately for everyone, the season does not end today. Unfortunately, Jackâs team looks almost unbeatable. Deebo Samuel, Tyreek Hill and Jamarr Chase form probably the best WR tandem of any team. It doesnât even matter that Tyler Lockette now stinks without Russell Wilson. Jonathan Taylor is quickly ascending into Derrick Henry territory, heâs an absolute stud behind that Colts offensive line. I canât believe Cordarrelle Patterson is a weekly RB play, I donât even have a witty joke I can make about him. Heâs just flat out good. And then thereâs Tom Brady, who at age 44 is the fantasy QB1. I hate this guy more than any athlete that has ever played a second of professional sports, but Iâd be remiss to not admit what heâs doing in year 20 of the NFL is astonishing. I still have questions/concerns about the depth of Jackâs roster (Mike Davis?, Devin Singletary?, Jamaal Williams?) but the JTT2.0âs should have built up a sizeable enough lead that he should have a playoff spot wrapped up quickly. Letâs hope nothing happens to JT.
#1. The Flandrewâs â Brent Gotkin (Previous Ranking: Tied for 1st) Heâs big, heâs bad and heâs back as the sole owner of the #1 spot on Da Commishâs power rankings. A convincing 60 point victory against the former #1 seed 69erâs is enough to break the four way tie and earn The Flandrewâs the top spot; and he did it all without his top dawgs on the Cowboys. It was a different two-headed monster that got Brent going on Sunday, Joey B and Mixon absolutely crushed Baltimore in convincing fashion. The old two TE play worked out just fine, Pitts and Goedert went for 30 points. AJ Brown is seemingly healthy and back to his old ways and what can be said about Cooper Kupp? I still kick myself for taking Josh Jacobs over him at the draft. You know itâs a good fantasy week when youâve done everything right, meaning that your all-Pro kicker, Justin Tucker, was the lowest scorer for the week. I kinda want James Conner back, weâll talk. Anyway, look for Brent to continue his winning ways now that he survived the Cowboys bye week and will have Antonio Brown back soon. Congrats on the top spot bud.
There you go. No longer a 4 way-tie at the top. Everyone ranked unbiasedly one through ten just like a power ranking is supposed to. Weâre officially at the regular seasonâs half-way point so things are starting to get dicey, just the way I like it. We got a good one to kick-off week 8 as the Packers take on the NFC leading Cardinals. Anyway, see you all at the Lake House (facetime us Max) for a nice weekend of boozing, comradery, and more than enough fantasy banter thatâll make all non-League members want to rip their heads off, Iâm sure. Well, itâs their loss.
Kris hands Brad a fat “L” in The League’s biggest matchup on the young season.
Wow. What a freaking bloodbath. Scary season is officially upon us, and The League did its best to join in. There were more than a few ugly, horrifying performances this week and itâll take a proper fantasy brained genius to analyze it all. Fortunately for everyone, I fit that bill. So in keeping up with this weekâs theme, allow me to put on my Victor Frankenstein hat and dissect the monster that I created, beginning as always with number 10âŚ.
#10. South Jersey 4th & Schlong – Brad Peddito (Previous Ranking: 10) A moral victory! Unfortunately, they donât count any extra in fantasy as they do in the real sport. Still, I must acknowledge the vast improvement in the Bradleyâs this week, even if they dropped a big one to Kris. 115 point is normally a meh game, but still a 30-point improvement over what I predicted on this weekâs pod. Kyler was back doing Kyler things, playing like an MVP frontrunner in a blowout at the Dawg Pound. Also, it appears the Phins got a good one in Jaylen Waddle, 24 for #17 across the pond. And the biggest story of the week was R. Stevenson (not even bothering to lookup that first name) rewarding Bradâs faith in giving him the rarest of starts and finding the endzone against Dallas of all teams. That mustâve felt good. Hell, even Zach Ertz scored in the double digits. I want to keep Bradâs write-up a positive one, so I wonât mention his shortcomings, but nonetheless, still something to build off as we near the seasonâs mid-way point.
#9. Beans Corp â Brendan Cahill (Previous Ranking: 8) The era of good feelings for Beans Corp fans lasted all of one week. It was one step forward, three steps back. At a glance, the final score of our game was much closer than the actual competitiveness, as some late garbage time touchdowns from Robby Anderson, Courtland Sutton and DâAndre Swift moved Beanâs projected points from like 85 to 105. Anywho, I already mentioned what went right, now letâs discuss what went wrong — which was pretty much everything else. Brendan was victimized by usual culprits Jerrick McKinnon, Miles Sanders and Robby Anderson, the last of whom canât escape the ghosts of Sam Darnold. Poor guy. Last weekâs hottest waiver addition Kadarious Toney was doomed from the day he put on a Giants jersey and he naturally got hurt. However, the biggest disappointment had to come from Justin Herbert who could only muster 11 against Baltimore. While Beanâs tries to ast least stay afloat without CMC for another couple weeks, hopefully the rest of his squad can step it up.
#8. Waller Nothing â Max Cohan (Previous Ranking: 7) Have the wheels finally fallenâ off for everyoneâs favorite Southerner? Maxwell, who has recently navigated some tough sledding and still managed a 3-2 start through 5 games, ran into a hungry Brent and absolutely got his teeth kicked in by the defending champ. It was always going to be a tall order this week with Kamara/Ridley out on byes, but I wouldâve liked to see more of a competitive fight put up by the Wallerâs. Channeling his inner Gene Hackman, Max trudged out the Replacements, led by Kareem Hunt (who promptly got hurt), Zack Moss, Devonte Booker and Tim Patrick. Obviously, this strategy did not work and the actually good players on Maxâs team were unable to dig him out of an early hole. Mike Williams had the most obvious Mike Williamâs game of all time. At least Rodgers and Thielen both are playing well. Anyway, Max has already emphasized his need of a quality RB and is looking for a trading partner, so perhaps a new look roster for next weekâs game will be just the need Max needs to right the ship.
#7. The Norse Horse â Kris Blaine (Previous Ranking: 9) Is Kris back??? It appears for at least one week that is the case. Who knew that all you need to remedy a slow fantasy start is to face Brad? It was the CeeDee Lamb show that led Kris past the aforementioned Brad with 31 big ones in his inaugural game as a Nordic. Whatâs this now? Leonard Fournette is suddenly good at football? I guess a little bit of Tom Bradyâs greatness has rubbed off on the Tampa RB. The Rams defense against a mush-brained Daniel Jones was the most obvious play of all time. Seriously, Kris should be locked up for taking advantage of a super concussed man like that (but all kidding aside someone on the Giants needs to be fired for that decision). The Packers dynamic duo was rock solid with 30 points and Chubba Hubbard continued to take advantage of playing time in CMCâs absence. Kris was burned by the Myles Gaskin experience again, sad, but the rest of his team performed well enough to double his win total in a laugher. Watch out boys.
#6. The Martians â Ryan OâConnell (Previous Ranking: 6) Is Ryan back… to being bad at fantasy??? For at least one week, it also appears to be the case. Sorry Marz. The Martians suffered from one of their worst scoring outputs of the season, dropping a stinky 91 points in an easy defeat by Abie. Due to unfortunate injuries to his QB depth, Ryan was forced to play the other triplets out of the NFC East â Taylor Heinicke, Antonio Gibson and Scary Terry. The three combined for just over 17 points, or about half of what Derrick Henry dropped on them. Not a great ratio. Melvin Gordon is still a thing. Sadly, it appears we were all duped by Tyler Boydâs fast start to the season. He, as expected, has turned it around â which is to say heâs back to being bad. The good was Stefon Diggs, Mark Andrews and Dionte Johnson. Hopefully weâll be able to chalk up this weekâs performance to unfortunate injury luck and Ryan will be back to selling #PlayoffMarz t-shirts. Weâre all rooting for you. At least Ryan hit that monster parlay so maybe heâs this weekâs big winner after all?
#5. Buffalo Bonez â Thomas Antonello (Previous Ranking: 4) Just edging out the previously mentioned Marzy, my man Tommy Bonez must be kicking himself this week after barely losing a very winnable game against Jack to extend his losing streak another week. The ten-point deficit he suffered can be attributed to playing the wrong QB for the second week in a row, but this time it was Lamar who let down the Buffalos with a disappointing 11 points. Somehow, the Ravens still managed to blow out LAC, even though Hollywood Brown disappointed his way to 5.5 points. Notch this one as a victory for Vigs in my never-ending beef with Mike Evans, I told you he stinks! Seems like only Najee and Noah Fant got the memo that Bonez needed to pick up a dub this week, so good for those guys. The rest of his lineup, not so much. Again, the bench warriors, namely Alex Collins, Latavius Murray and Matt Stafford wouldâve been enough to get Tommy the win. Perhaps Bonez should stop wasting his time and money fixing up his condo and instead invest instead in a time-machine. I wish you good fortunate as you set your lineup for Sunday. Actually, we play each other so please pick the wrong QB again đ.
–Prepare for something wild–
#1. (4-way tie) Thomas and Friends â Andrew Vignali (Previous Ranking: 3) Jonathan Taylor Thomas 2.0 â Jack Staub (Previous Ranking: 2) The Flandrewâs â Brent Gotkin (Previous Ranking: 4) HOCKEYPRO69 â Abie Leider (Previous Ranking: 1) Woooh, what the fuck happened here? Let me fill you in. Iâve been staring at the fantasy app and the top 4 teams for about an hour and a half; analyzing, ranking, and re-ranking them — and making my head spin. Honestly, you can make a fair case for ranking any of these teams in some combination of one through four. Since I canât make up my mind, and for the sake of finishing this column and getting back to work, Iâm just gonna go ahead and lump them all together. So, congrats to Abie, Brent, Jack and myself on being ingrained in history as the first four-way tie atop Da Commishâs power rankings. Let me state my case for each one:
Abie: Has the best record, but only 4th most points scored. Capitalizing on the easiest schedule, Abie has gotten off to a rip-roaring start despite injuries decimating his RB/WR room. Once the 69ers are at full strength, Abie will be very much in the running to take the championship belt from his Albany brethrenâŚ
Brent: The âanti-Abieâ. Brent has benefitted from the highest scoring team but has suffered from the second-hardest schedule. Add that up and you get a 3-3 record, the worst of the 4 teams tied for the top. However, Brent should benefit from playing in the opposite division as Abie, Jack and I and is clearly the top dawg in our Eastern division.
Jack: My gganbu and writer of the two-best columns on this blog, Jack has my vote as the early front-runner for Coach of the Year. Iâm convinced heâs got some kind of super Excel formula running his team like Jonah Hill in Moneyball. Whatever heâs doing, itâs working. Tied for second in both best record and for most points scored, plus throw in a head-to-head victory against Da Commish, the JTT2.0âs makes a strong case for the number one spot.
Me (Da Commish): Who is Jack tied with for second best record and points scored? That would be yours truly. I basically make the same case as above for Jack. Interestingly, I am the only one of the 4 teams to have a H2H matchup with each of the others, accounting for both of my losses in high scoring affairs (to Jack and Abie respectively). Anyway, itâs my rankings, so Iâm always gonna find an excuse to give me the top spot.
There you have it, an unprecedented four-way tie for the #1 spot. I hope you all recognize the history that was made here. One more sleep till week 7 kicks off with a lousy Baker-less Browns v. the Broncos. Iâll probably pass since I have no one going. The Knicks tip-off in their opener tonight so that will be cool. Iâll be splitting my commissioner duties for the time being between The League and fantasy basketball. Donât worry though, The League and #MBS will always be my first love.
I know, I’m super late and we have two weeks of fun to cover. Luckily, I have “trainings” for work today that I can “multi-task” during and get you guys the League content you so desire. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet:
Some of you probably don’t want to rehash the distant past (2 weeks ago), and are only wondering about how I thought you did this past week. I’m not sure why, because most of us did pretty awful in Week 6. So to Kris, Abie, Brent and Vigs: If you’re in a rush or just want to see me talk about how much you won by, you can scroll down and find Week 6 under the picture of another famous #6.
First thing you may notice from looking at the chart is a lot of blue, some red outlines on the “Add” side, and now some orange outlines on the “Drop” side. This is the first weeks that these orange bois have showed up, literally indicating that this player has been dropped multiple times (whatever significance that holds for you), and figuratively indicating that we are in the thick of it in terms of the revolving door of added and dropped players. I’d recommend not spending too much $ on these guys in the future, since you’ll probably end up getting rid of them.
We also had another interesting week in terms of the order in which transactions happened, with 3 players dropped before FAAB offers went through and 3 rounds of auctions due to dropped players being claimed on waivers after the main Tuesday night/Wednesday morning auction. All three late auction pick-ups resulted in Double Whammies (more on those next), which just goes to show that exciting things are happening in the League every day!
So now in the interest of saving some time, I’m just gonna rattle off some good and bad moves made in the lead-up to Week 5. A Double Whammy is when an owner gets more points than the number of FAAB bucks spent on them, as well as more points than the player who was dropped. More significance if the players are of the same position, less significance if the player dropped was injured or on a bye week. Overall, you decide how significant this really is. I think of it as “getting what you paid for” but sometimes you gotta make sure you outbid potential rivals and saboteurs, and other times the player’s dividends are cashed in later in the season.
The GOOD Beans – Picked up Samaje Perine at a 4.3 point profit (16.3 points – $12). The Bengals Defense getting -1 point made this look even better on our trusty spreadsheet. Spin: He sat on the bench and then got hurt so was subsequently dropped. He still beat Thomas by 10, so the blunder was not detrimental. Max – Got his hands on Seahawks back-up Alex Collins for $5 and was rewarded with 8.2 points. K.J. Osborn was let go, and was so sad that he only got 2.9 points. Apparently, Collins’ performance was not good enough in Max’s eyes (maybe his opinion was skewed from the brutal loss to me), and he was dropped right after the Monday Night game. More on that later… Additionally, Max snatched Tim Patrick from Brent for a scant $2 and got 12.4 points in return. He also rode the pine though, so had no hand in the effort to keep Max’s win differential against me at the high highs they once were.
The BAD Brad – I’m really sorry that “Brad” rhymes with “bad”, truly an unfortunate start to the season for this guy, can’t catch a break. I really hope you’re doing better in any other fantasy league you’re in and whoever’s running the content in that league is giving you tons of praise. You’ll get there eventually, but right now I think our groom-to-be is in his own head a bit in between cake tasting and color-scheme choosing. $20 FAAB for AJ Green and dropping Rondale, who you spent $34 on, once he actually had a decent week? Big oof. I guess I was right when I named you as one of the guys who would spend all his FAAB first (even though I named literally half the League). You also did that thing again where you offered $5 for Jamison Crowder and also picked Rondale to be dropped so once he was let go in the Green transaction there was no one to drop for him. Plus, Crowder did even better than AJ this week. I have a feeling we’re going to see more of this as the season goes on, but who knows with this guy? I think I’ve mentioned this quote before, but some Jew named Bob once said, “When you ain’t got nothin’ you got nothin’ to lose”. Silver Lining: Maxx Williams getting .9 more points than the $1 spent on him, along with .6 more points than Robert Tonyan, still counts as your first DOUBLE WHAMMY!! Congrats buddy, here’s to more to come. Thomas – The other newbie of the League is not immune to stumbling blocks either, despite his more “agreeable” start to the season. Streaming the Raiders Defense and having nothing to show for it aside from seven less FAAB bucks is not the move you want to make when there was a chance for you to put the sliding Beans Corp. firmly into stand-up watch with Brad. I’ll admit that it makes sense that Mike Gesicki would score more points than a defense, so it doesn’t really count for me as a reverse double whammy. The even bigger mistake was the $22 spent on Latavius Murray, the only thing keeping this from being the dreaded RDW was that you dropped DJ Chark (who was injured) in the separate transaction before the auction went through. But hey, we all gotta be the Top Spender at some point. I’m watching the Chapelle special (with a permanent scowl and my arms crossed, don’t worry), so I’ll stop “punching down” at this point. Brent – Actually one more thing. My guy picked up Rashod Batemen, who didn’t play, as a free agent and dropped Tim Patrick, who scored 12.4. Why man?
Lastly, Ryan spent his first small piece of his FAAB-le pie on Kenneth Gainwell who, as noted by the red outline, has already been added and dropped this season for poor performance. You were shorted by 10 cents of a point on the $3 you spent, but that’s no matter when you crush Brent by the biggest margin of the week (38.4).
Alright, that’s it for Week 5. Let’s get to the present:
Here’s the picture of famous #6, Jay Cutler, driving with his wife Kristin Cavallari, Beans and Becca on the way to a Must Be Sunday at the Vignali household.
EVERYONE was clamoring for Devontae Booker, God knows why. I could have told you it was a bad idea, and it’s not just because J-Tay is finally getting his shit together and I’m not desperate for RBs. Max was the big winner, once again not giving a previous pick-up (Alex Collins) the time to blossom. Tom Collins (that’s a drink) scored 7.4 more points than Booker D. Washington and spent $28 on him. 7 time 4 is 28. Weird coincidence, aliens. Anyway he lost big time to Brent.
The Commish has been clawing his way back into fantasy relevance, currently tied with me for 2nd place. This move scares me, because we haven’t seen the second-highest offer to go through result in a Double Whammy since Week 2 when Beans scooped up the Cardinals Defense who scored 15 in an 11 point win over Brad. Khalil Herbert is his name, running is his game. I thought Andrew was joking when he said we all fucked up by letting him have him, I thought this guy was a combination of Khalil Mack and Justin Herbert. Turns out, this guy is legit. Knowing this League though, Vigs’ll probably drop him by tomorrow. I also forgot to mention this was my roommate’s first spend of the season, which means that everyone has finally spent at least some (and in some cases most) of their budget this year! Yay for arbitrary milestones!!
Beans hit another Double Whammy with the Colts D, even though the Falcons were on a bye week it was still a smart move, so the moral victory is there. I also hit one with Graham Gano, even though Rodrigo was injured. Those three points contributed to my 10 point win, so I’ll take it.
Kris got some bang for his buck with the 3 points he got from Nick Folk, but maybe should have held onto Daniel Carlson and hit that 50 point win margin for the stats. Same idea with dropping Jared Cook for Hunter Henry. A dozen less dollars for what’s probably a pretty comparable player. Once I get my “Long Term Comparisons” project in full swing we’ll see if I’m right, stay tuned…
We got some good news for Brad! After a handful of successive adds and drops, our guy found Rhamondre Stevenson and ran with him, picking up a respectable 13 points from the New England back-up and 115 points overall. Biggest point total since your Week 1 win against Bonez? Not bad not bad. Let’s keep making things interesting. In another attempt to baffle me while organizing the data for this column, Brad was somehow able to put a $1 bid on Van Jefferson that didn’t go through because, and this is true, his maximum roster size would be exceeded. Don’t they not let you put the bid in in the first place if that’s the case? Mans just doesn’t want to pick more than one player to drop in any given week. Please, for all of us, go on the pod and explain this. You may very well have some good reasoning that I can’t think of, it may even be a trade secret you don’t want to reveal. This is getting mysterious Brad, what do you know?!?!?
Aside from the above, nothing of note really happened in Week 6. You all saw how your teams did, it was a stinker and the lowest combined point total of the season thus far. So there you have it, we’re all caught up. This has been a special Double Feature of The Wire, I’m gonna go have some beef stroganoff.
Week 5
Week 6
Both weeks shown along with totals. Kind of confusing to read, no? Suggestion box is open to anyone with ideas.
Something new I put together today. I’ve had the top left quadrant from the start, but decided to make it more interesting and factor in the points.
Another fun new thing I made based on your Leverage, which is basically your share of the total available FAAB bucks each week shown as a percentage. This is similar to the Budget Pies, but shown in a little more of a linear fashion. Turn your phone sideways and find yourself! This’ll get really interesting if we start trading in FAAB as well as players, someone make a poll in the GroupMe so we can vote on it đ
Hollywood badboy Brent Gotkin rehearses some standup material as his shitty team disappoints in week 5 with another stinker against The Martians
**Disclaimer: This was written yesterday I just forgot to post it in the haste of preparing for last night’s podcast**
5 weeks down, 12 more to go before my crown our 4th champion in LeagueStory. Already, the playoff picture is taking shape. Some teams are flying high, others are crashing low and plenty of teams in-between. Iâm sure you are all waiting with baited breath to find out where you fall in this weekâs Power Rankings. Well, wait no longer. Letâs jump right into it with our numero diezâŚ
#10. South Jersey 4th & Schlong â Brad Peddito (Previous Ranking: 9) Brad commented last week that one day he will crack the top 8 in #BrentsCommishâs weekly power rankings. Iâm sorry Brad, but youâll have to wait another week. Actually, Iâm starting to doubt that that day will ever come, especially after seeing Saquonâs ankle get rolled over the way it did on Sunday. Ouchie. Not that a fully healthy Saquon wouldâve made much of a difference. Brad was finally victimized by a pedestrian Kyler Murray on Sunday which pretty much ruined any chance of an Abie upset. The only folks on Bradâs team who came to play were Nick Chubb and Robert Loggia Woods. Somehow the Charges scored 47 points and Keenan Allen only mustered 75 yards, yikes. You know your team sucks when you resort to starting Zach Ertz, double yikes. Not much else happening on Bradâs bench to note. Anyway, Iâm bored with this team so moving on.
#9. Norse Horse â Kris Blaine (Previous Ranking: 8) Another week, another move in the wrong direction for the Nordics. Last weekâs number 8 team dropped his 4th game out of 5 in the early portion of the season to the devilishly handsome and always good at fantasy Vigs. Hey, thatâs me! Sorry about that bud. Anywho, Kris had a pretty meh performance,. 126 points is not too great, not too bad, but it definitely wasnât enough to top ya boy. It looked like it was going to be way worse, but Josh Allen laid the beatdown on prime time television against KC. Too bad not enough of those gorgeous passes went to Stefon Diggs. Damien Williams showed the importance of a quality handcuff RB so good job there. Lenny Fournette escaped the barren wasteland that is Jacksonville and is suddenly a good fantasy player â whoâd have thought? But too little from his receivers, namely Marvin Jones and Jared Cook, flushed Krisâs chances at a victory like a big ol’ turd â synonymous with his current team.
#8. Beans Corp â Brendan Cahill (Previous Ranking: 10) Heâs bacccck. Nobody, and I mean nobody, needed a victory more this week than last weekâs biggest loser Beanso. And for most of Sunday, it looked like it was gonna be another long one for my podcast co-host. However, Justin Herbert would not let Beans go down in vain, single handedly snatching victory from the jaws of defeat with a 40 burger and putting Beans Corp back into the thick of things on the fantasy season. DâAndre Swift had another big game. Courtland Sutton mustered 20+ points and Travis Kelce more than made up for last weeks stinker. Add that all up and it was enough to take down the hottest name in fantasy in what was probably the best game of the weekend. Beans should be worried about his thin RB depth behind Swift (at least till McCaffrey comes back) as Miles Sanders and Damien Harris arenât going to cut it. Still, nothing but positive vibes coming your way this week.
#7. Waller Nothing â Max Cohan (Previous Ranking: 6) I guarantee Iâm gonna be hearing from him after this one but I donât care. I said it after last week and it remains true, Maxâs team is a fraud. It sucks to score in the 130s and lose huh? Which is unfortunate because this was one of Maxâs better weeks of the season. Alvin Kamara turned back the clock all the way to 2018 and finally had a big week. Kareem Hunt enjoyed a nice afternoon in that wacky Browns-Chargers game that saw a billion points scored. Speaking of that game, Mike Williams went OFF. We all know this by now, but heâs actually having a good year, I canât explain it! Goes to show how far a stud QB can carry an otherwise very mediocre WR core. Anyway, that was about all the good for the Wallerâs. Their namesake Darren and the Raiders have come back to life with another stinker. Alex Collins and Zack Moss? I guarantee in the history of fantasy football, this was the first time that combo of RBs every started in the same lineup. I donât know whatâs good with Adam Thielen either. And Aaron Rodgers could only muster 19 against the friggin’ Bengals? I donât even have a joke for that one â he just stinks.
#6. The Martians â Ryan OâConnell (Previous Ranking: 7) Cue the damn music. âHe ainât go-ing nowhereâŚ.â Seriously, King Marzy is 3-2 through 5 weeks and fully in the Fantasy playoff race. The big story this week? Mark Andrew dropping 36 Big Macs in that crazy Monday Night game in Baltimore. Ryan only needed about 4 points heading into that one, but Mark secured Marzy the victory with relative ease. The other big guns Davante Adams and Antonio Gibson laid the beatdown in #PlayoffMarzâs upset of Brent. Unfortunately, it might be hard stringing wins together moving forward considering Russell Wilson is down for a few weeks. Weâll also see how Ryanâs affected by the big trade that went down, seeing him ship out Adams and CeeDee to Kris, who was in desperate need of a team makeover, for Chris Carson and Stefon Diggs. Bold strategy Cotton, letâs see how it plays out.
#5. The Flandrewâs â Brent Gotkin (Previous Ranking: 2) Ok, Iâm getting a little sick of writing about Brent getting fucked over on Monday Night Football. Wait, who am I kidding, itâs hilarious! Still, Brent is putting up with the likes only seen before when Alex (RIP) started like 0-7 in 2019 despite being the second highest scoring team. A pretty mediocre 120 was not enough to top the Martianâs as Brent dropped his third straight. Simply put, it was the Zeke and Kyle Pitts show for The Flandrewâs on Sunday. Thanks for showing up guys. Sadly if youâre a Brent guy, theyâre all who showed up. DJ Moore, Cooper squared (Amari and Kupp), AJ Brown and Mixon all sucked with a capital S. I know heâs gonna act like itâs all good and he has everything under control, but we know Brent is secretly dying on the inside. We all expect better. Brent, maybe start preparing a few standup jokes.
#4. Buffalo Bonez â Thomas Antonello (Previous Ranking: 4) Not gonna penalize my man Bonez here for dropping his first game after a three-game winning streak as Tommy remains in the number 4 spot. The same thing holds true as always, Austin Ekeler is a freaking monster *as long as his hammy remains intact*. I told yâall Najee Harris was gonna be the next LeâVeon in Pittsburgh. Youâre welcome for the advice Tommy. Also, youâre welcome for Mike Evans. He stinks but he must have a personal vendetta against Da Commish because he keeps proving me wrong. Sadly, OBJ ACTUALLY stinks and at this point is looking like he should barely be playing CFL football, let alone on Sunday. I have no idea what happened with Chase Edmonds. Did he get hurt? Genuinely have no idea. Justin Jefferson definitely did not get hurt, however, so 15 points from him is a disappointment considering what he averages weekly. Does Matt Stafford stink suddenly? 16 points against the SeaGirls is horrible. Anyway, Bonez, you canât win âem all.
#3. Thomas & Friends â Andrew Vignali (Previous Ranking: 5) Yeah, my all around solid team continues to do all around solid things. At least 130 points for the 5th straight week (only guy in The League do so) and a victory against arch-rival Kris, it was a good Sunday. Speaking of good Sundayâs, DK and Dawson Knox had GREAT Sundayâs (ok, DK’s was technically on Thursday). The best handcuff in football continued to rock ân roll in Dalvin Cookâs absence (thanks Max!). Hurts, Henderson and Jacobs all had pretty average games for their liking, but it didnât matter. I even correctly played Corey Davis over CEH. Itâll be interesting to monitor the RB2 position going forward with CEHâs MCL all banged up. But, as I expected this to happen, I snatched up his handcuff Darrel Williams last week while yâall slept. Go Me!
#2. HOCKEYPRO69 â Abie Leider (Previous Ranking: 1) Shocking, I know. Abie wins and drops a spot? Thatâs more of a testament to our yet-to-be-revealed number 1 team. Anyway, Abie continued his hot streak with an easy victory against Brad, which was good news for Abie considering his man Patrick Mahomes had probably the worst game of his acclaimed career. Derrick Henry shit-kicked Urban Meyer and the Jaguars on Sunday for like the billionth time and his counterpoint James Robinson was not too shabby either. Add some solid performances from Michael Pittman and DeâAndrew Hopkins and it all adds up to a 4-1 start for the 69ers and the top seed through 5 weeks. Itâs amazing he continues to win considering all the injuries Abieâs suffered (Jeudy, Julio, Mostert, Shepard). Will his luck run out? Will he finally get healthy? Will I figure out a clever way to finish off this team write-up? Spoiler, I canât and I really want to finish this before the Rangers game so let me continue on toâŚ. #1. Jonathan Taylor Thomas 2.0 â Jack Staub (Previous Ranking: 3) Get ready to change your GroupMe name bud. Through 5 weeks, my roommate and gganbu Jack has accumulated the most points in The League (Iâm a close second let me add). Still, letâs not take anything away from the JTT2.0âs. Iâm just gonna put it bluntly, thereâs no explanation for how he does it, but Tom Brady continues to ass fuck Father Time. Touchdown Tommy is playing arguably the best QBâing the sport has seen at age 44. I laughed when he first picked up Cordarrelle Patterson, but now it’s Jack who is laughing all the way to the bank with 15 points and a TD against my Jetsies. Sigh. Iâm pissed off I didnât take Jamarr when I had the chance, easily the ROY front runner. But the MVP for Jack on Sunday actually came on Monday night! His namesake Jonathan Taylor needed only 3 points against Baltimore to secure victory, and managed only 10x that. Rodrigo added 5 points before rupturing every ligament/tendon in his kicking leg for good measure. So with all that, we got a new front runner for the championship belt.
Biggest Rise: Jonathan Taylor Thomas 2.0/Beanâs Corp/Thomas & Friends Biggest Fall: The Flandrewâs
Ah yes, finished just in time for puck drop. Letâs Go Rangers. Anyway, donât reflect on these rankings for too long. Week 6 kickoffs in twenty-four hours with a doozy, the defending champion Bucs against the scumbag Eagles, sorry Brad. You know Iâll be watching intently. We know the Bucs will win by 30 but Iâm rooting for 2 garbage time touchdowns from my main man Jalen as he always does. So, with the well wishes of my fantasy QB in your thoughts, let me leave you with the two greatest words in sportsâŚ
We love to see the synergy, folks. Here’s a little treat for anyone who has listened to the pod. I got working on it as soon as I heard the idea mentioned, thanks roomie! You guys were definitely right in saying that the target score is well above 120 (see also “Distribution of Points with Wins and Losses”), but surprisingly wrong about Max being the one to win by the lowest average points. It’s actually Abie who’s the sneaky guy, who would have thought? Anyway, new Wire coming soon, as well as some other developments regarding the “image” of the brand going forward, Stay tuned…
Must Be Sunday 