GW13 Fantasy Football

We're almost halfway through the regular season, with just one more game till we get there. Records are starting to shape up, and anyone with a negative record after this week will need at least 4 wins in the final 7 weeks just to think about playoffs. I'm not going to go into any real depth for this, since it isn't the focus of the week's analysis, but I wanted to take a quick look to see if a larger sample size has gotten people closer to where they should be or if our season is still as unfair as it seemed the last time I reviewed "Bad Luck or Just Suck". A quick look at our standings and relative deservedness before we dive into this week's main story: 1. Pole Vaulter's Chubb - Dumb Luck 2. Lamarathon Runners - Dumb Luck 3. Rachaad White & Blue - Don't Suck 4. Purdy Good Olympics - Bad Luck 5. Yusuf DiKelce - Bad Luck 6. Darnold QB1 - Don't Suck 7. Pukaing Up Seine Water - Just Suck 8. Ja'Marr SteepleChase- Dumb Luck 9. City of Love...

This was a big week for NFL offensive players (as noted by Greg and multiple pundits)... or was it? The answer is probably yes, but I'm not satisfied with that simple of an answer. For many of us, this was a big week, with lots of points to go around (though there was one obvious outlier), but was this really the NFL's doing or are we maybe becoming better decision makers ourselves? Maybe the answer is both? My last attempt to not talk bad about my future opponent to avoid a jinx didn't work, but I'm still going to try to avoid it anyway just in case, so they will remain unnamed in this column (as above). We also had a self-proclaimed "Noodle Fight" as well, which is probably technically true when the match consists of two of the worst three performances of the week, but an average score of almost 100 points between the teams makes it a pretty al dente noodle fight. So was this a big week for the offenses? If so, how big? Let's take a look at the numbers! ...

We've had one full month of fantasy football, which puts us a quarter of the way through the season already. With no unblemished records and everyone with at least one win now, the race is still close. The top position is only separated from the last by 2 games, a gap fully surmountable in the last 10 weeks of the regular season. This is still anybody's game. To make moves even more likely in the next few weeks, a single win or loss could make some major corrections for teams 2-4, who despite their positions are actually teams 8-10 in points for. Each of the 2-2 teams and two of the 1-3 teams, all the way back to current 10th place have them beat in points. For the quarter season mark, we'll take a look into how our keepers have fared over their first 4 games returning to their same team. A few have already paid dividends, while others have been dropped or injured, each leaving their mark on the team just 4 games in. First, I'll list out each keeper, along with the roun...

There was this site Greg shared a long time ago called Bad Luck or Just Suck (https://badluckorjustsuck.herokuapp.com). We all know intuitively whether we belong where we are or not, but now that we've had 3 full weeks, I'll include some extra validation I'm sure a few of you will appreciate. Ja'Marr SteepleChase: SteepleChase has been pretty mediocre to start the season, not yet cracking 120 points. A couple of close wins against two sub 100 point weeks makes for the third least challenging schedule so far. Like the other two teams with even easier schedules, SteepleChase has relied heavily on luck so far. Expected Wins: 1.56 Expected Rank: 6 Percent Chance of Ranking: 5% Verdict: Dumb Luck Lamarathon Runners: Has anybody checked in recently on Greg's firstborn child? After three years of championship dominance, this team seems well on its way to lucking into a fourth. Sitting just outside of first place by less than 1 point, Lamrathon managed to beat out probably ...

It's hard to judge teams based on just one performance (not to say I didn't), but after a second full week, trends start emerging, and in some cases, panic might start setting in. Last week I rated teams on a grade scale, this week I'll include a bit of a panic meter. Wushu Waddle: The Wushu Waddle name change was too late to curry favor from the fantasy football gods. Amon-Ra St. Brown got back to his typical PPR ways, but also might have picked up an injury. Richardson might be pretty volatile going forward too. It looks like that Raiders loyalty led Wushu astray with Zamir White. At least Dicker the Kicker is doing fine. Wushu Waddle might have a hard time digging out of their 0-2 hole. Panic Level: I'm allowing you to panic some Ja'Marr SteepleChase: Ja'Marr Chase has been kept under 10 points for 2 weeks, and seemed to get a little angry at the refs at one point. The panic isn't quite there for him yet, but it's starting to creep in. The tight end ...

It's been two weeks since the draft, and we've finally had our first week of football in a year. It's way too early to make judgements, but we're going to anyway. Yahoo gives us each a letter grade for our draft, hands out an A+ to everyone with a backup kicker for the bye week, then has AI write some nonesense to back the grade up. I can answer a captcha, and have a week of results to work with, so maybe my grades will make more sense. The Draft: Yusuf DiKelce: A Waiting on quarterback seemed to work out for Yusuf, so far at least. I had Tua last year, and he got off to a hot start then too, so we'll see if it lasts. At least you always have Taysom Hill to fall back to in your QB slot as well. Mixon and Godwin look like great values if they keep it up, and each has a good chance to. We'll see if Kelce is finally just too old now. Probably not going to get 150+ points every week, but I think you're going to have a hard time missing playoffs. Darnold QB1: C C...

Well, as we covered last week there was a lot of opportunity for the top 6 spots to be shaken up, and the matchups did not disappoint in providing us with some late season drama. Continuing his campaign to score the most points without making playoffs, TJ Hock's Pro Skater put up a ridiculous 186 to drop Ja'Mario Kart a peg and put him at some risk of being left out of the post-season. In our 5v6 matchup, Bass Hunter crushed Pollard's Gate by 50, giving them some breathing room and a shot at the bye week. Scoring 162 in a game where your QB leaves with a concussion is impressive, and no one should be excited to match up against this WR core. The oft renamed It Take Tua shot up from 8th to 5th as they dropped Allen Wake to 6th in the process with a really well rounded performance. 4 different players hit the 20+ mark to give him a dominant 40 point victory Playoff Power Rankings I did this earlier in the season, but with one week to go before the playoffs start, lets ta...