Sofa King American is on a roll!

Gettin’ it done, Sofa King style!  Since starting the season 2-4, Sofa King American has gone on a 5-game winning streak, starting in Week 7 and 8 with back-to-back Weekly High Score prizes, and now claiming a third Weekly High Score prize in that span!  No team has scored more than the Sofa King over the last five weeks, averaging just over 100 points per week.  James got to 105 points this week courtesy of Deshaun Watson’s 30 points and both his wide receivers, Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill, posting 16 points.  The win puts Sofa King American in a tie for 2nd place in the South Division.  Excellent work senor!

With just two more weeks of the regular season here are the known items:

• In the playoffs = sprouts.  Russ has all but locked up the top seed in the playoffs with the best record and most points scored.  (One more win will assure the top seed.)
• Out of the playoffs = American BadAss, Coors Light Drunk Guys and Big Sack No TD’s.  Getting to seven wins is the minimum to qualify this season, so these teams are out of contention.
• Win one to get in = Four teams have records of 7-4… Sofa King American, Young Guns, Longshanks and Attack of Mahomes.  By getting to 8 wins, any of these teams can secure a spot.
• Win one plus get some help to get in = Joe’s Pats can qualify for the playoffs with only one win, but tie-breakers would likely become a factor.  With a record of 6-5, if Joe wins his next two games, he assures himself a playoff spot.
• Win two plus get some help to get in = Vandelay Industries.  With a record of 5-6, Rob needs to win the next two games to get into a tie-breaker with other teams.  

Other interesting playoff tidbits:

• Week 12 Pivotal Game – Joe’s Pats vs. Vandelay Industries = A win by Joe’s Pats eliminates Vandelay from playoff contention.
• Week 13 Pivotal Game – Sofa King American vs. Young Guns = Depending on what happens in Week 12, this game could likely determine the 2nd seed in the South Division.

Crazy scenario possibilities:

• There is a scenario where four teams could finish tied with a record of 7-6, with only three playoff spots remaining.  I'll have a full breakdown of all the tie-breakers if it comes down to this. 
• Another possibility has Longshanks, Attack of Mahomes and Joe’s Pats all finished tied for 1st place in the North Division at 8-5.  In this case, rankings could likely come down to total points scored, where these three teams are all currently within just 16 points (1,016, 1,004 and 1,000 points scored).

Last note - The tie-breakers we use vary from the Yahoo! tie-breakers, so don't rely solely on what the site says.  If any of these crazy scenarios come to pass, I will send out the official playoff qualifiers along with the full tie-breaker breakdown.

BEST BENCH

Some teams get hot with stacking up the wins, like Sofa King American, while other teams get hot stacking up Best Benches.  Fortunately for Young Guns, they left only 11 points on the bench this week and thus avoided a 4th-in-a-row Best Bench.  But it is another familiar face taking the crown this week… with a respectable 30-point improvement possibility, and for the third time this season, the Week 11 Best Bench goes to – American BadAss!  Jason needed to swap three players to get there:  J. Goff for M. Ryan +21, J.K. Dobbins for K. Drake +5, and C. Lamb for T. Boyd +4. 

Everyone is still alive for Weekly High Score Prizes so make sure to check your roster every week.  

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Week 10 - sprouts dominance continues!

Where has the scoring gone?  With only 729 points scored this week, it ranks as the 4th lowest scoring week of all-time, and the lowest score since Week 15, 2018 when only 691 points were scored.  But it wasn’t due to poor team management, the players simply scored less this week.  The highest individual score was 31 (by Tom Brady), which is the lowest high score of the season so far.  Across all players in the NFL this week, there were 2,088 fantasy points scored, which is lower than the weekly average by 390 points.  For comparison in Week 2 of this season, there were a total of 2,724 fantasy points scored including 6 players scoring 31 points or more.  Even last week, there were 2,398 points scored and 4 players over 30 points.  We need more points!

In spite of low scores, one team continues to pour it on week after week, and that team is sprouts!  Russ demolished his opponent, Vandelay Industries, by 50 points, and beat the next highest scoring team, Joe’s Pats, by 20.  He had big games from Kyler Murray (29 points), Alvin Kamara (27 points) and Deandre Hopkins (18 points) to finish with 127 and claim a 4th Weekly High Score Prize this season!  Russ gets extra props on this one because it was an optimal High Score…there were no bench point improvements to be had on his roster.  sprouts owns the league’s best record, 8-2, and leads the league in scoring (1,050 points scored… the only team over 1,000).  Excellent work Russ!

The league standings are as tight as ever behind sprouts with five teams tied at 6-4 and one team at 5-5.  Four teams are still alive to take the North Division title, and the wild card spots are shaping up to be tight battles.  It is more important than ever right now to get your waiver claims in, and make sure your roster is set every week.  

This week we will check in on the surging All Unwanteds, get caught up on last week’s What Do You Know?! Bowl, and hand out two Best Benches…(spoiler alert – only 1 team gets called out in the Best Bench section).  Onward!

BIG TIME

• Tom Brady, QB – Joe’s Pats – 31 pts – After his dismal outing last week versus the Saints (3 interceptions and only 2 points scored), TB12 bounced back with a phenomenal game… 341 yards, 3 passing TD’s and 1 rushing TD!
• Kyler Murray, QB – sprouts – 29 pts – Over the last 5 weeks, Murray has scored no less than 28 points in any week and is averaging a crazy 32.4 points per game over that span.
• Alvin Kamara, RB – sprouts – 27 pts – Kamara only had 98 total yards (83 receiving and 15 rushing), but made the most of it by getting into the endzone three times!

COME ON MAN

• J.K. Dobbins, RB – American BadAss – 1 pt – Dobbins only got 5 carries in the crowded Baltimore backfield.  
• T.J. Hockenson, TE – Big Sack No TD’s – 1 pt – A hurt toe limited his production as he only caught 2 passes for 13 yards.
• Baltimore, DEF – Longshanks – 1 pt – Ravens were the top defense coming into the week, and had a favorable matchup against New England.  But they ended up giving up 23 points (3rd most they’ve surrendered this season), recorded no turnovers (for the first time this season) and only registered 1 sack. What in the flux capacitor is going on?
• Travis Fulgham, WR – Longshanks – 0 pts – Fulgham was completely lost in the shuffle with Philadelphia getting 3 injured players back.  He finished with just 1 dumb catch for 8 pathetic yards.
• Julio Jones, WR – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – It is hard for a guy to score points when he doesn’t have a game!  Check your roster Shawn!
• Todd Gurley, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – It is hard for a guy to score points when he doesn’t have a game!  Check your roster Shawn!!
• Philip Lindsay, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – Lindsay did play this week, but barely.  He carried the ball 4 times for a whopping 2 yards.  Check your roster Shawn!!!!
• Jared Cook, TE – Attack of Mahomes – 0 pts – Timmy only needs a back-up tight end for one week, and Cook goes out and lays an egg.  Just how in the hell does that happen? 

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! BOWL

The “What Do YOU Know”?! Bowl is the annual meeting between the Coors Light Drunk Guys and whatever team name Jens is going by.  Some years we have been blessed with two WDYK?! Bowl games, but it looks like this will be the only one this season.  

In last week’s meeting, the Drunk Guys dominated, led by Aaron Rodgers with 28 points and DK Metcalf with 16 to finish with a solid 89 points.  Big Sack struggled with only three players in double figures (led by R. Tannehill with 14), and finished with just 59 points.  The 30-point victory by Shawn marks the 3rd largest margin of victory in WDYK?! Bowl history.  Congrats on the victory Shawn!

Historically speaking, Jens still leads in total wins, 12-9, but Shawn has now taken the lead in total points scored, 1,717 to 1,698.  Until next year… What do YOU know?!?!?

ALL UNWANTEDS

After a rough start to the season, the AUW’s have hit their stride and now own a three-game winning streak!  Last week they finished with 83 points, which narrowly edged the league average (82.3), and this week they absolutely destroyed:

QB Alex Smith WSH  - 18
WR Keelan Cole JAX - 18
WR Cam Sims WSH - 5
RB Antonio Gibson WSH - 18
RB James Robinson JAX - 10
TE Logan Thomas WSH - 6
DEF Jacksonville JAX - 15
K Dustin Hopkins WSH - 10
TOTAL = 100

With the league average only 72.9 this week, this was an easy victory, moving their record to 4-5.  (They have one fewer game because the Jags & Potatoes were both on byes in Week 8).  Side note: The All Unwanteds – a team comprised solely of undrafted Jacksonville and Washington players – outscored my team by 63 points this week.  Just wanted to point that out in case you missed it.

PLAYOFFS?  DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!  PLAYOFFS??!!

Only three regular season games left before playoffs begin.  As always, the top six teams will advance to the playoffs starting in Week 14.  The top two teams in each division automatically qualify with the top team in each division receiving a first round bye.  The next two highest ranked teams receive Wildcards.  Wildcards are not division specific…both can come from the same division.

Teams that do not qualify for the playoffs are still eligible to win the Weekly High Score prize, but do not compete in head-to-head games.  Final standings at end of regular season determines the teams that finish in 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th place.

Here are the criteria used for Divisional and Wildcard rankings:

Divisional standing ranking
Overall record
Division record
Head-to-head record
Points scored
Coin flip

Wildcard standing ranking/tiebreakers
Overall record
Head-to-head record
Points scored
Coin flip

Tune in next week for playoff scenarios!

BEST BENCH(ES)

The Best Bench has been dominated by one team in recent weeks.  In fact, one team has owned the Best Bench for the last three weeks!  The point improvement totals haven’t been a whole lot to speak of… 26 points in Week 8, 27 points in Week 9, and now 35 points in Week 10.  But getting three in a row is a pretty rare event.  Not since the Drunk Guys took 3 in a row back in 2015 have we seen such command of the Best Bench.  All of these totals belong to… Young Guns!!  Just as it hasn't been a lot of points, John hasn't needed many players to do it.  Last week, he needed only two player swaps to get to it:  J. Allen for J. Herbert +15 and J. McKinnon for J. Jackson +12.  Again this week, just two roster moves to get there:  R. Jones II for D. Johnson +21 and A. Thielen for A.J. Brown +14.

Four teams have yet to claim a Best Bench this season, and one manager still has a five year streak of no Best Benches working!  Make sure to check your roster every week...

Time to get ready for Week 11!!

2020 Midterms!

 

Eight weeks of the fantasy football season are in the books.  Been a wild one so far… did you know we have seen a player score over 40 points in all but two weeks this season?  And Week 2 actually gave us two players over 40 points, so the 2020 season has already seen 7 players do it.  Last season there were only 11 players to do it for the entire year!  

This week it was Dalvin Cook who was back in the lineup after being injured in Week 5, and absolutely ran wild over the Green Bay Packers.  Cook racked up 163 yards rushing and 3 TD’s, plus 63 yards receiving and another TD, to finish the day with 49 points scored!  This is the highest single player score we have seen so far this season, and in spite of Cook not scoring any points in Weeks 6 & 7 (out injured), he is the highest scoring running back and leads the 2^nd place RB (Alvin Kamara) by 17 points.  What can I say, Cook is cooking!

The big congratulations this week once again go to the big man up north…no not Santa, it’s Sofa King American!! USA! USA!  James had four players score in the 20’s this week (Philly D-24, Davante Adams-23, Matt Stafford-22 and Tyreek Hill-21), and was one of two teams in triple digits, finishing with a very nice 113 points.  Two in a row now for Mr. Hand…great work Major!!

In league action, the total points scored dropped for the sixth week in a row, with only 800 total points scored this week.  We apparently blew our collective load in Week 2.

Crazy graph right?  Not one blip in the nice gentle glide from 1,034 points down to 800. 

Across league standings, 7 teams have four wins or more and four teams are tied for 2^nd place with records of 5-3.  Much too early for playoff scenarios, but it’s the perfect time for some midterm grades, so let’s get right to it!!

 

MID TERMS

This will be the fourth year in a row using the same methodology on calculating mid-term grades.  It is a purely analytical analysis on seven categories measuring each team’s success so far and the effectiveness of the manager.   In each category, the highest ranked team receives 10 points, 2^nd place receives 9 points, 3^rd 8 points and so on.  If there is a tie, the points are allocated evenly across the tied teams.

Here is a breakdown of the grading categories:

• Overall Record:  More points awarded to teams with better records.  Sprouts takes the top spot here, and four teams tie for 2^nd place.
• Points Scored:  More points awarded to teams who have scored more points.  Sprouts, Longshanks and Sofa King American are the top three point scorers so far.
• Points Against:  More points awarded to teams who have had more points scored against them.  American BadAss leads the way here with 846 points scored against them, followed by Big Sack No TD’s with 787.
• Weekly High Score Prizes:  More points awarded to teams who have collected WHSP’s.  Five different teams have won a WHSP this season, with sprouts leading the way with 3.
• Best Benches*: Teams with more Best Benches are awarded fewer points.  Both American BadAss and Big Sack No TD’s have claimed 2 Best Benches this season.
• Waivers*:  Teams with more waiver moves are awarded more points.  Attack of Mahomes leads everyone in waiver moves with 24 so far, while the Coors Light Drunk Guys have the fewest with 5.
• Keeper Production:  Teams who have had the best keeper production thus far are awarded more points.  Attack of Mahomes is tops in this category (300 points between P. Mahomes and T. Kelce), with Vandelay Industries in 2^nd (267 points between D. Henry and L. Jackson).
• Utilization:  Teams who have done the best on leaving the fewest points on the bench are awarded more points.  Sofa King American has the best utilization rate so far (92.0%), with sprouts close behind (91.3%).  Big Sack No TD’s has the lowest utilization rate so far (78.6%). 

(*The points in these categories are weighted to only count half as much as the other categories.)

 Points are awarded across those categories, summed up and compared across the league.  As always, grades are doled out on a strict curve, with 2 A’s, 2 B’s, 2 C’s, 2 D’s and 2 F’s handed out. 

Here are the 2020 Midterm Grades:

Russ - sprouts		Pts
Record:	7-1	10
Points For:	841	10
Pts Against:	707	6
High Scores:	3	10
Best Bench:	1	2.25
Waivers:	11	1.75
Keepers:	201	6
Utilization:	91.3%	9
Total Points:		55
Grade		A+

 

Jerry - Longshanks		Pts
Record:	5-3	7.5
Points For:	765	9
Pts Against:	725	8
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	0	4.25
Waivers:	18	4.25
Keepers:	87	1
Utilization:	89.3%	8
Total Points:		49
Grade		A

 

James - Sofa King American		Pts
Record:	4-4	4.5
Points For:	755	8
Pts Against:	667	2
High Scores:	2	9
Best Bench:	0	4.25
Waivers:	11	1.75
Keepers:	230	7
Utilization:	92.0%	10
Total Points:		46.5
Grade		B+

 

Rob - Vandelay Industries		Pts
Record:	5-3	7.5
Points For:	651	3
Pts Against:	609	1
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	0	4.25
Waivers:	14	3.25
Keepers:	267	9
Utilization:	87.7%	7
Total Points:		42
Grade		B

 

 

Timmy - Attack of Mahomes		Pts
Record:	5-3	7.5
Points For:	739	7
Pts Against:	668	3
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	1	2.25
Waivers:	24	5
Keepers:	300	10
Utilization:	81.9%	3
Total Points:		37.75
Grade		C+

 

Jason - American BadAss		Pts
Record:	2-6	2.5
Points For:	685	4
Pts Against:	846	10
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	2	0.75
Waivers:	14	3.25
Keepers:	237	8
Utilization:	81.0%	2
Total Points:		37.5
Grade		C

 

Joe - Joe's Pats		Pts
Record:	4-4	4.5
Points For:	730	6
Pts Against:	723	7
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	0.5	3
Waivers:	10	1
Keepers:	134	4
Utilization:	85.4%	5
Total Points:		30.5
Grade		D+

 

John - Young Guns		Pts
Record:	5-3	7.5
Points For:	713	5
Pts Against:	690	4
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	1.5	1.5
Waivers:	13	2.5
Keepers:	183	5
Utilization:	83.7%	4
Total Points:		29.5
Grade		D

 

Shawn - Coors Light Drunk Guys		Pts
Record:	2-6	2.5
Points For:	606	1
Pts Against:	693	5
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	0	4.25
Waivers:	5	0.5
Keepers:	129	3
Utilization:	86.1%	6
Total Points:		22.25
Grade		F+

 

Jens - Big Sack No TD's		Pts
Record:	1-7	1
Points For:	628	2
Pts Against:	787	9
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	2	0.75
Waivers:	18	4.25
Keepers:	116	2
Utilization:	78.6%	1
Total Points:		20
Grade		F

 

So what do midterm grades mean?  Nothing really.  Although looking back historically, this has been a pretty good predictor of top finishing teams.  In 2017, Joe’s Pats & Bubble Craps Bandits received the top grades, and they finished 1^st and 2^nd overall.  In 2018, Joe’s Pats and Young Guns received the top grades, and they finished 1^st and 3^rd overall.  Last year, American BadAss and sprouts received the top grades, and they finished 2^nd and 9^th overall.  2019 is the outlier year, as my grade last year was a C+ and yet I ended up in 1^st place. 

 

BEST BENCH

There were not a lot of points left on the bench this week, as five teams had just single digit improvement possibilities and only 3 teams even had >20 point improvement possibilities.  But claiming his first full Best Bench this season and with a 26-point-improvement possibility, the Week 8 Best Bench goes to… Young Guns!  John needed to swap only 2 players to get there, R. Woods for A. Thielen (+18) and J. McKinnon for R. Jones II (+8).

 

Playoffs are going to be here before you know it!  Get those waiver claims in and get ready for Week 9!!