Week 1 Has Sprouted!!

 And we’re off!  Bit of an odd week with no fans and all the safety protocols in place, but at the end of the day it was still football!!  So good to see…

Due to the way Week 1 matchups shook out, four of the top five scoring teams played each other.  That meant my Longshanks boys lost despite scoring 112 points (3rd highest) to Joe’s Pats (122 pts - 2nd highest) and Sofa King American lost despite scoring 96 points (5th highest) to the Week 1 High Scorer: sprouts!  Russ had a solid all-around performance with 7 of his 8 players scoring in double digits, led by Kyler Murray-QB (26 pts) and three players with 18: DeAndre Hopkins-WR, Juju Smith-Schuster-WR and Alvin Kamara-RB.  It all added up to 125 points, and was nearly an optimal victory as he only had a 3-point bench improvement possibility.  Nice work Russ!

Just a quick one this week to kick off the season… we’ll see how the All Unwanteds performed in Week 1, take a look at what Week 1 results mean, and of course, award the first Best Bench of the season.  Onward!

BIG TIME

-Aaron Rodgers, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 33 pts – Look at Rodgers making everyone say “Why in the f*#% didn’t I draft Rodgers?!”  The dude discount-double-checked the Vikings for 364 yards and 4 TD’s!  

-Josh Jacobs, RB – Joe’s Pats – 31 pts – That’s a good way to start your season… 93 yards and 3 TD’s.

-Davante Adams, WR – Sofa King American – Adams was targeted 17(!) times and caught 14 passes, on his way to 156 yards and 2 TDs. 

-Russell Wilson, QB – Longshanks – 30 pts – Big day for Russ as he completed 31 of 35 passes for 322 yards, 4 TD’s and 0 INTs.

COME ON MAN!

-Rob Gronkowski, TE – American BadAss – 1 pt – Gronk caught just 2 of 3 passes thrown his way for only 11 yards.  The Brady-Gronk magic has not returned yet.

-Mecole Hardman, WR – Attack of Mahomes – 0 pt – The love for Kansas City Chiefs runs so deep with Timmy, he started their 4th string wide receiver.  That is some deep devotion there.  But hey with Mahomes throwing the ball, anything is possible...unfortunately this week it amounted to just 1 catch for 6 yards.

-Evan Engram, TE – Young Guns – 0 pts – Not for lack of trying… Engram was targeted 7 times, caught 2 of the passes, but only gained 6 yards.  Yuck.

ALL UNWANTEDS

Solid showing to start the season for those who shalln’t be drafted (except Terry McLaurin and DJ Chark).  Jacksonville surprisingly had a decent fantasy showing in Week 1, and Peyton Barber from the team that shalln’t be named had a solid performance as well:

The league’s average score this week was a 94.6, so this goes down as a victory for the Unwanteds! 1-0

DOES WEEK 1 MATTER?

My official annual playoff predictions don’t come out until after Week 5, but I wanted to take a look at Week 1 outcomes and if they seemed to have any effect on playoff teams or final finishes.  For data, I only went back five seasons, so through 2015.  Across all five years, winning or losing in Week 1 didn’t have any impact on playoff qualification.  Teams winning in Week 1 qualified 60% of the time, which is right in line with how many teams make it in to the playoffs.

Looking at points scored in Week 1 versus final standings did show a negative correlation, suggesting higher scoring teams ultimately finish better in the standings.  For playoff qualification, higher scoring teams have qualified at higher rates.  Teams scoring over 95 points in Week 1 have qualified for the playoffs 75% of the time, and teams scoring over 120 have qualified 100% of the time.  (Albeit that has only happened twice.)  Teams scoring 75 points or better have qualified 66% of the time, which is pretty much the same as the percent of teams who qualify.  And so do you know what this mean?  It means that what happens in Week 1 really doesn’t matter at all…come on, its only Week 1!

BEST BENCH

Just because your team scores a lot of points doesn’t make you immune from earning the Best Bench in any given week.  In fact since 2010, there have been 10 instances where the Weekly High Score Winner also nabs the Best Bench, and we frequently see high scoring teams end up here as well.  Not the case this week.  Nope, look down at the bottom of this week’s scoreboard and you’ll find Week 1’s Best Bench… Big Sack!  What do YOU know?!  Jens could have improved by 30 points with 3 roster moves:  M. Brown for J. Mixon +18, S. Watkins for C. Godwin +7 and M. Brown for A. Robinson II +3.  (Seriously Jens, how do you have 2 players named “M. Brown”?  You need to fix that.  Hahaha!)

The waiver wire has already been lighting on fire, so I don’t need to remind you guys to get your waivers in.  Let’s go Week 2!!