Victories are sprouting!

Three weeks into the season and only one undefeated team remains, the Midnight Maulers. But it was not from a lack of trying to lose… Jamie’s Maulers tied Joe’s Pats 54-54 which is the 2nd lowest scoring tie game in Sacred Sundays history. (Vandelay Industries and Scottish Rebels tied 49-49 last season). The best starting record of all time is 6-0, which has been accomplished 4 times, most recently in 2013 by Channel 4 News Team. So there’s the good, now here’s the bad. Two winless teams also remain… SofaKingHorrible and my Scottish Rebels, both mired at 0-3. My Rebels have scored the 2nd most points in the league (295) but have had the most points scored against (318). SofaKing has also been unlucky in that regard, having had the 3rd most points scored against (302). The worst starting record in Sacred Sundays history is 0-6, an accomplishment twice achieved by my Scottish Rebels (2011 & 2012).

This week the big congratulations go to sprouts, who smoked everyone and rang up 123 points! Russ is the third different Weekly High Score Prize winner in as many weeks. He had an amazing game from Marvin Jones (35 pts), plus big games from Todd Gurley (20 pts), Matt Ryan (19 pts) and Zach Miller (19pts). The Matt Ryan waiver pickup is looking like a brilliant move. This win moves Russ into a tie for first place in the North Division along with NextYearRussIA and Bubble Craps Bandits.

Well done sir!!


This week we’ll take a look at what the draft should have looked like and see if the All Unwanted Team can remain undefeated. Onward!

AWWYEAH!
- Kansas City Chiefs, DEF – Vandelay Industries – 36 pts – What the Chiefs did to the Jets on Sunday was simply an epic beat down. Check out the stat line: 6 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries, 2 TD’s and only 3 points allowed. Pure, unadulterated domination. 

- Marvin Jones, Jr, WR – sprouts – 35 pts – MJJ had an amazing day, probably helped on by the fact Detroit was playing catchup for the majority of the game. But he certainly delivered, finishing with 205 yards and 2 TD’s. Three weeks into the season, and Mr. Jones is the #1 scoring wide receiver in fantasy. Didn’t see that coming did ya?

- Matthew Stafford, QB – Vandelay Industries – 29 pts – This marks the second time in only three weeks where Stafford has gone over 25 points in a game. He is the #3 QB in fantasy. 

- Devonta Freeman, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 29 pts – Last season’s top runningback finally had a breakout game, racking up 207 total yards (152 rushing, 55 receiving) and a touchdown. This moves Freeman into the top 10 among fantasy runningbacks.

- Trevor Siemian, QB – Free Agent – 28 pts – Who needs Manning or Osweiller when you’ve got Siemian?! I’ll just let his stat line do the talking: 312 passing yards, 4 TD’s, 0 interceptions. Nice.

- Minnesota Vikings, DEF – NextYearRussIA – 28 pts – Quite a full day for the Vikings defense as they recorded 8 sacks, 8 interceptions, a punt return TD, only allowed 10 points and added a safety for good measure.

- Drew Brees, QB – NextYearRussIA – 28 pts – Allow me to introduce the top scorer in all of fantasy! Brees has 75 points on the season thus far, and will likely add a lot more this week as he faces off against his old team, the Chargers.

COME ON MAN!
- Carson Palmer, QB – Joe’s Pats – 3 pts – After two good weeks to start the season (18 & 24 points, respectively), Palmer fell apart this week against the Bills. He got sacked 5 times and threw 4 interceptions. But at least he wasn’t as bad as Ryan Fitzpatrick! (Fitzy this week finished with 188 passing yards, 22 rushing yards and 6 interceptions for a total of -3 pts. Ouch).

- Julius Thomas, TE – American BadAss – 1 pt – Absolutely nothing got going for Thomas in this one, as he finished with a mere 13 yards.

- Rob Gronkowski, TE – Scottish Rebels – 0 pts – Technically Gronk did play, but he was really nothing more than a decoy. D’oh!

- Delanie Walker, TE – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – Walker was declared inactive prior to the Titans’ game on Sunday, yet he remained in the Drunk Guys active roster. Hmmm...

- Kelvin Benjamin, WR – sprouts – 0 pts – If it was the Vikings’ goal to keep the ball out of Benjamin’s hands, they sure succeeded. Newton only threw his way one time (with only 2:34 left in the game), and he failed to catch it. Disappointing week for a guy coming in as the #1 WR in fantasy.

- Pittsburgh, DEF – Vandelay Industries – 0 pts – I don’t know which is worse, having your active defense score 0 points or having a defense on your bench score 36.

ALL UNWANTEDS
As mentioned last week, I’ve had the computer randomly assign an opponent to play against the All Unwanteds each week. This week’s opponent was Joe’s Pats who scored 54 points. Here is how the AU lineup fared:

Matt Ryan Atl - QB          19
Steve Smith Sr. Bal - WR  8
Mohamed Sanu Atl - WR  3
Terrance West Bal - RB     4
Shaun Draughn SF - RB    1 

Jacob Tamme Atl - TE       2 

Matt Bryant Atl - K            9
Baltimore Bal - DEF         13 

TOTAL                              59

Woah, look at that... Pulled out another victory! The All Unwanteds are now 3-0 on the season. (Best record in the league.)
Roster change notice – Tevin Coleman will be replacing Shaun Draughn next week.
Next week’s opponent is NextYearRussIA (Jens).

DRAFT RE-DO
Below shows the first 20 players selected in this year’s draft (excluding keepers) as well as the player who should have been selected, based on the first three weeks of data. The “should have” picks are also based on the idea that each team selects the same position.

#	Actual Pick	Team	Pts
1	Antonio Brown Pit - WR	Vandelay Industries	41
2	Odell Beckham Jr. NYG - WR	sprouts	27
3	Adrian Peterson Min - RB	NextYearAtlanticCity	4
4	Julio Jones Atl - WR	Midnight Maulers	29
5	Andrew Luck Ind - QB	CL Drunk Guys	60
6	Jordy Nelson GB - WR	Bubble Craps Bandits	44
7	Ezekiel Elliott Dal - RB	Joe's Pats	39
8	Dez Bryant Dal - WR	Joe's Pats	20
9	Lamar Miller Hou - RB	Scottish Rebels	30
10	Amari Cooper Oak - WR	American BadAss	28
11	Eddie Lacy GB - RB	Bubble Craps Bandits	22
12	T.Y. Hilton Ind - WR	CL Drunk Guys	37
13	Brandon Marshall NYJ - WR	NextYearAtlanticCity	15
14	Allen Robinson Jax - WR	sprouts	29
15	Russell Wilson Sea - QB	Vandelay Industries	35
16	LeSean McCoy Buf - RB	Vandelay Industries	43
17	Doug Martin TB - RB	sprouts	11
18	Keenan Allen SD - WR	SofaKingLucky	6
19	Thomas Rawls Sea - RB	NextYearAtlanticCity	6
20	Mark Ingram NO - RB	Midnight Maulers	29

#	Should Have Picked	Team	Pts	Diff
1	Marvin Jones Jr. Det - WR	Vandelay Industries	54	+13
2	Mike Evans TB - WR	sprouts	47	+20
3	LeGarrette Blount NE - RB	NextYearAtlanticCity	51	+47
4	Jordy Nelson GB - WR	Midnight Maulers	44	+15
5	Drew Brees NO - QB	CL Drunk Guys	75	+15
6	Doug Baldwin Sea - WR	Bubble Craps Bandits	42	-2
7	DeMarco Murray Ten - RB	Joe's Pats	51	+12
8	Antonio Brown Pit - WR	Joe's Pats	41	+21
9	Tevin Coleman Atl - RB	Scottish Rebels	49	+19
10	Stefon Diggs Min - WR	American BadAss	41	+13
11	Matt Forte NYJ - RB	Bubble Craps Bandits	48	+26
12	Larry Fitzgerald Ari - WR	CL Drunk Guys	40	+3
13	T.Y. Hilton Ind - WR	NextYearAtlanticCity	37	+22
14	Willie Snead NO - WR	sprouts	37	+8
15	Matt Ryan Atl - QB	Vandelay Industries	73	+38
16	Melvin Gordon SD - RB	Vandelay Industries	47	+4
17	Carlos Hyde SF - RB	sprouts	46	+35
18	Mike Wallace Bal - WR	SofaKingLucky	35	+29
19	LeSean McCoy Buf - RB	NextYearAtlanticCity	43	+37
20	C.J. Anderson Den - RB	Midnight Maulers	42	+13

Some interesting notes from this:
- Only four players from the "Actually Picked" list are on the “Should Have Picked” list: Jordy Nelson, Antonio Brown, T.Y. Hilton and LeSean McCoy.

- Matt Ryan was undrafted but should have been the 2nd QB selected.

- Two players picked in the Top 20 are now on IR (Keenan Allen and Adrian Peterson).

- Three players in the “Should Have Picked” list went undrafted: Tevin Coleman, Matt Ryan and Mike Wallace.

- Jordy Nelson is the only player outperforming his pick. (Actually picked 6th…should have been picked 4th).

BEST BENCH
There were quite a lot of points left on the bench this week across the league, but none even came close to this week’s winner for Best Bench. With the highest improvement total of the season so far, the Week 3 Best Bench goes to… Vandelay Industries! With four roster moves, Louis could have improved his point total by a very solid 54 points… Chiefs for Steelers (+36), M. Stafford for R. Wilson (+16), D. Jackson for A. Brown (+1), D. Allen for J. Witten (+1).

Bye weeks start this week, so make sure you have your rosters set! Also only two weeks away from this year’s playoff predictions…

Joe's Pats hold on for Week 2!

Points are important, but scheduling matters more.  Only two weeks into the season and we have three undefeated teams who rank 2nd, 3rd and 7th in total points scored, and three winless teams who rank 1st, 5th and 10th in total points scored.  Yes, you read that correctly… my Rebels are the highest scoring team in the league (averaging 109.5 points per game) yet have zero wins to show for it.  Meanwhile, American BadAss is averaging 82 points per game and sit tied with the Maulers for 1st place in the South Division with a record of 2-0.  The North Division has scored a total of 915 points versus the South Division scoring 790, yet in points against the North Division has been outscored by 15 (930 points against).  Schedules matter!

This week the big congratulations go to defending champion Joe’s Pats for narrowly holding on to best my Rebels 117-116.  Joe got a massive performance on Thursday night from Matt Forte (28 pts), and added big points from Carson Palmer (24 pts), the Panthers D (17 pts) and his kicker (Justin Tucker, 15 pts).  My Rebels almost overcame the deficit, and literally came within 3 yards of tying on Monday Night.  Ryan Mathews had 37 yards in the 4th quarter, but on his final carry was thrown for a 5 yard loss (instead of gaining 3 measly yards), and never re-entered the game.  Oh so close!  But nice work Joe!  Teams winning the high score in Week 2 have only missed the playoffs 1 time out of the last nine years, and have finished in 2nd place 5 of those years.

This week we will check in on our All-Unwanted Team, see what happened with the latest “Iced Kick”, and relive the greatest kick-to-the-face in football history.  Oh yeah, and we also had our 2016 regular season “What Do You Know?!? Bowl” this past week!  Let’s do this!!


UH HUH
- Cam Newton, QB – Scottish Rebels – 32 pts – Cam got off to a slow start, throwing an interception on the opening drive and losing a fumble early.  But then he poured in on the 49ers, finishing with 353 passing yards and 4 TD’s!!  Love this guy!

- Matt Ryan, QB – sprouts – 30 pts – Hard to believe an undrafted QB leads the league in scoring through the first two weeks.  Russ got away with a steal here…

- Matt Forte, RB – Joe’s Pats – 28 pts – Forte ran all over the hapless Bills, finishing with 100 yards and 3 TD’s.  He is on pace to carry the ball 472 times this season (wtf?!), and is the 2nd highest scoring runningback (42 total points).

- Stefon Diggs, WR – American BadAss – 27 pts – Second coming of Randy Moss?  Diggs accounted for over half of the Vikings passing yards, finishing with 182 yards and a TD.  Could it be time for some playing time?

- Ryan Tannehill, QB – Free Agent – 25 pts – Tannehill.O  Most of his scoring came in the second half after the Patriots had gone up 24-3, but still, he had a streak where he was 20-for-21 on completions with the only incompletion being a throwaway.  The Daniel Tosh lookalike has a favorable matchup next week with the Browns.


COME ON MAN!
- Alex Smith, QB – Bubble Craps Bandits – 3 pts – After an awesome start to the season, scoring 30 points in Week 1, Smith came crashing back to Earth in Week 2.  Just no offense to speak of, and he lost two fumbles.

- Doug Baldwin, WR – SofaKingLucky – 2 pts – Last week the Rams looked like a struggling JV team, and this week the Seahawks only manage 3 points against them.  Odd.

- Coby Fleener, TE – SofaKingLucky – 2 pts – Fleener nearly quintupled his yardage production this week, but unfortunately “nearly quintupling” 6 yards means he only had 29 yards this week.

- Carlos Hyde, RB – Vandelay Industries – 2 pts – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde… 20 points and looking good in Week 1…2 points and looking bad in Week 2.  We’ll see who shows up in Week 3.

- Connor Barth, K – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 2 pts – It is good to be consistent… Barth has scored 2 points in each of his first 2 games.  That is good enough to have him ranked 32nd amongst all kickers.


ALL UNWANTEDS
In keeping with the idea of schedules mattering, I’m changing the way a win or loss will be computed for the All Unwanted Team.  Rather than comparing the All Unwanteds score to the average league score for the week, I’ve had the computer randomly assign weekly opponents.  The Week 1 opponent was sprouts, whom the All Unwanteds outscored 71-61, so they are 1-0 going into this week.
Here is how they did:
Matt Ryan Atl - QB      30
Steve Smith Sr. Bal - WR 6
Mohamed Sanu Atl - WR 1
Terrance West Bal - RB 5
Shaun Draughn SF - RB 2
Jacob Tamme Atl - TE 13
Matt Bryant Atl - K 9
Baltimore Bal - DEF 14
TOTAL = 80
The randomly assigned opponent for this week was SofaKingLucky who only scored 56 points, so the All Unwanteds are 2-0!  Next week’s opponent is Joe’s Pats.


TEN LORDS A LEAPING
Hopefully you saw the highlight of Legarrette Blount hurdling over a would-be Miami Dolphin tackler, leaving the guy grabbing at air.  If you missed it, here is a link...  https://twitter.com/NFL/status/777592570658430976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Blount's leap over this guy is extra awesome because in the process of jumping over him, Blount kicks the guy in the head.  That adds a little extra humiliation to the hurdlee.  But it was still not close to my favorite football highlight of all time:

I can literally watch this clip for 5 minutes straight.  I mean look how far he flies before he kicks that guy!  And he just straight up kicks him in the face/throat!  Doesn't even try to go over the guy.  Hands down, the best foot to the face ever.


WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!? BOWL
This week’s meeting between the Coors Light Drunk Guys and NextYearElPatio marked the 14th meeting of these two teams since 2007.  Jens now has an 8-6 advantage in wins and losses, but Shawn holds the edge in points scored 1172-1141.  Unless these teams play again in the playoffs, this is the only time we will see this match-up until next year.

TO ICE OR NOT TO ICE
‘Iced Kicks’ are those where a kicker actually kicks the ball, but has it waved off due to the opposing coach calling a timeout, and has to attempt the same kick a second time.  These only happen when the coach really waits to call the timeout, and barely gets it in time.  This is different from the times where the timeout is called earlier, and basically just lengthens the time before the ball is snapped.  I’m interested to see what happens in the “Iced Kick” scenarios, because those are where head games can really start for kickers.  Thus this season I’m tracking the outcomes of any Iced Kicks I observe to see what happens.
In Week 1, Graham Gano had an Iced Kick where he made the first one (which did not count), but then missed the second one (which did count).  This week Caleb Sturgis had an Iced Kick where he missed the first and made the second.  So right now the score stands at 1-1.  Let me know if I miss any Iced Kicks this season, as they only show up as a timeout on the official scorecard.


BEST BENCH
Since 2013, American BadAss has had the Best Bench in Week 1 or Week 2 every year.  The three year streak now extends to four, as Jason takes the Week 2 Best Bench with a very nice 52-point improvement possibility.  Four roster moves were needed:  S. Diggs for A. Cooper +20, T. Benjamin for E. Sanders +20, D. Carr for A. Rodgers +8 and M. Gordon for D. Johnson +4.


Week 3 is here!  Only two more weeks until I make my playoff predictions!

The Clock Strikes Midnight!

And we’re off!  Big scoring in the first week of the season, in fact this is the highest scoring Week 1 since 2013, and the third highest scoring opening week in Sacred Sundays history.  There were 877 total points scored this week, which is a lot, but the Week 1 record is from 2013 when there were 991 total points scored!  In that amazing week, American BadAss scored 124 points and BoomGoesTheDynamite scored 129 points but neither one took the High Score Prize.  Nope, the prize went to sprouts who posted an opening week record 133 points!

The congratulations this year go to the Midnight Maulers for smashing the competition and putting up 125 points.  Jamie beat the next highest scoring team (NextYearElPatio) by 17 and won his game by 75!  Utter domination!  Well done Jamie!

Now the question is, does winning the Weekly High Score Prize in Week 1 mean anything?  Well, I’ve looked back at results thru 2007, and since 2008 the highest scoring team in Week 1 has finished no worse than 5^th, and over the last 5 years has finished in the top 3.  However, only once has the team who won the Week 1 Weekly High Score Prize gone on to win the championship… Jens accomplished that feat in the 2012 season.  So the precedent is there for Jamie to have a great season. 

Okay, enough jibber jabber… let’s get to this!!

BIG TIME BABY!

-Andrew Luck, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 38 pts – In a game featuring no defense, Luck tossed 4 TD’s and 0 interceptions while amassing 385 yards in the air and 21 yards on the ground.  Luck could be poised for a big year…well worth the first round pick.

-Drew Brees, QB – NextYearElPatio – 33 pts – In another game with ghost defenses, Brees also tossed 4 TD’s (but lost one fumble), while piling up 424 yards.  It is a quarterback’s world these days…

-Alex Smith, QB – Bubble Craps Bandits – 30 pts – Always nice to have a quarterback add a rushing TD to pad the stats.  Even sweeter when that rushing TD comes in overtime to win the game.  Nice.

-DeAngelo Williams, RB – NextYearElPatio – 28 pts – Williams just walked all over what was supposed to be an improved Redskins team.  By the end he had 171 total yards and 2 TD’s, and it just looked easy.

-A.J. Green, WR – Midnight Maulers – 27 pts – This dude is just awesome.  He catches nearly everything thrown his way (12 completions on 13 targets), and racks up the yards (180 yards).

-Brandin Cooks, WR – Scottish Rebels – 27 pts – Cooks registered the longest touchdown in Saints history, catching a 98-yard bomb from Brees for his 2^nd TD of the day.

SMALL BALLS

-Adrian Peterson, RB – NextYearElPatio – 3 pts – AP posted a pathetic 1.6 yards per carry (31 yards on 19 carries).  Could he finally be slowing down?

-Los Angeles, DEF – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 2 pts – Only through the grace of a fumble recovery did the Rams D post any positive numbers.  What a train wreck of a team…

-Kansas City, DEF – Vandelay Industries – 1 pt – The lone point here scored by the Chefs came from the single sack they served up.  This defense might be better suited for the food service industry.

-Gary Barnidge, TE – Scottish Rebels – 0 pts – As a pass catcher, you need to catch passes.  Ol’ Gary forgot about that part of his job description and dropped his two targets on the day.  He might have another drop coming in his future.

-Zach Miller, TE – NextYearElPatio – 0 pts – Three catches for 14 small yards.  Terrible.

-Dez Bryant, WR – Joe’s Pats – 0 pts – Two guys with names like Dak and Dez should be like peas in a pod, but they never got on the same page.  Dez finished with only 1 catch for 8 yards, in spite of Dak throwing 45 passes.

-Coby Fleener, TE – SofaKingLucky – 0 pts – Once catch for 6 yards.  Almost better to just not catch that one.  Jeez…

TO ICE OR NOT TO ICE

Icing the kicker is one of those things in the same vein as the "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy in basketball.  You love it when it works in your team’s favor, but hate it when it works against you.  The debate rages on as to whether or not icing is an effective strategy, but thanks to Graham Gano’s foot in the season opener, we are likely to see a lot more of it this season.  Gano, of course, made his initial kick but then missed the second one after the timeout had been called.  So the icing worked like a charm.  But I can remember a time when Nick Folk (kicking for the Cowboys) missed his initial kick and then made the second attempt after the timeout.  So it can work both ways.  I’m going to do my best this season to keep track of “iced kicks”…those are where there are two attempts (i.e. the timeout was called right before the ball was snapped, and a kick actually happens), to see if it is an effective strategy.

STAR SPANGLED DEBACLE

If you caught the start of the 2^nd Monday Night game this week between Los Angeles and San Francisco, you got treated to one of the weirdest renditions of the Star Spangled Banner in recent memory.  With all the hubbub about players kneeling, standing, fist pumping or whatever during the anthem, the folks at Levi stadium apparently thought it would be cool to have the anthem performed on a violin, with every other note being a tweedle.  (I don’t know how else to describe that thing violinists can do on some notes where they kinda play several notes at the end of a phrase.  It is the violin equivalent of a drum fill.)  The song was hard to follow to begin with, and I’m pretty sure during the “..and the rocket’s red glare” part it just went into a different song entirely and only came back to something mildly recognizable by the “…Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave…” part. 

To make it even worse, rather than showing the violinist performing, or the flag, or a military person in uniform, or the fans, ESPN kept the camera trained on a kneeling Kaepernick for 90% of the song.  I mean, good on Colin for getting some airtime in a game in which he did absolutely didly squat, but really ESPN?  This is what we get to see?  Just weird.

 

LEAGUE PICK ‘EM & WAIVER ORDER

In years past we have made the rule to where the person who picks the most correct winners of the games in our league gets moved to the top of the waiver order for the following week.  I’ve decided against doing that this season for a couple reasons: 1) There is no way to pick winners through the Yahoo! app, unless I am missing something; and 2) It always just seemed like it was me picking against Jensy each week.  Thus the waiver order this year will simply reset each week to the reverse order of standings.

ALL UN-WANTED TEAM

Here was the roster I put together for the Week 1 All-Unwanted team:

QB	Matt Ryan Atl	24
WR	Steve Smith Sr. Bal	1
WR	Mohamed Sanu Atl	16
RB	Terrance West Bal	3
RB	Shaun Draughn SF	6
TE	Jacob Tamme Atl	5
K	Matt Bryant Atl	10
DEF	Baltimore Bal	6
		71

It went well at the QB position, and the Sanu pick was a nice surprise, but overall it is fairly apparent why these players were not drafted.  Since the average score in the league this week was 87.7, this goes down as a loss.

BEST BENCH

They say the only sure things life are death and taxes, but I need to add one more thing to the list:  Coors Light Drunk Guys have the Best Bench!  I’m not sure why I still check everyone’s roster…there is only one you need to check, and that is Mr. Shawn Martin’s.  Last year in Week 1, the Drunk Guys tied sprouts for Best Bench, but this year it is a solo title, with a solid 42-point improvement possibility!

Only three roster moves were needed:  W. Snead for TY Hilton +19, D. Woodhead for D. Freeman +13 and L. Fitzgerald for A. Jeffery +10.

Get those waiver claims in and get ready for Week 2!!

Play ball!! 2016!

Vegas and the draft have come and gone in what feels like the blink of an eye.  As usual the best laid plans go flying right out the window by the fourth pick.  Joe is looking like a Cowboys fan this year, after using his first 2 picks on Big D.  Timmy is (again) trying to relive Chief Dredd’s glory days with half of his roster being Chiefs.  Russ and Shawn are the only teams with QB-to-WR combos (Bortles -> Robinson and Luck -> Hilton).  Jamie autodrafted and got the highest grade from Yahoo!.  Jens did not autodraft (as previously advertised) and got a much lower grade.  Jason drafted for two (with Louis’ approval) and managed to pick one really good team and one meh team. (You decide which is which).  James seemed thrilled to have Eli leading his team (again), and was “shocked” he was still available in the 7th round.  And I somehow managed to parlay the top QB and top TE keepers into a mishmash of junk with 2 Cleveland Browns and 2 Buccaneers on board.  (True story).

But as they say, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.  The luster or stank on most of these players will become real apparent in the coming weeks.

Here are some quick hits from the draft:

• Wide receivers were once again the most selected position in the draft, with 47 being selected.  This is 3 more than were picked in 2015.
• Runningbacks were next with 42 selected, 2 more than last year.
• The NFL team with the most players selected was the New England Patriots with 8.
• Four NFL teams had 7 players selected: Cardinals, Chiefs, Steelers and Seahawks.
• Three teams tied for the fewest players selected with 2: Falcons, Ravens and 49ers.
• It’s good to have options:  SofaKingLucky drafted 6 wide receivers, Joe’s Pats drafted 4 quarterbacks, and the Midnight Maulers picked up 2 kickers.
• Kickers went later than last year.  Gostkowski went off the board in the 6th round last season, but didn’t get picked until the 8th round this year.  
• Defenses also went later this year.  In 2015, the first defense was picked in the 5th round and 3 defenses were selected in the 6th round.  This year, the first defense again went in the 5th round, but 3 more defenses were not selected until into the 8th round.

2016 All-Unwanted Roster
Since there were three teams this year with only 2 players selected each, I decided to make the undrafted players from those team my pool of players to make this year’s All-Unwanted team.  Let me just say, for being teams who were good once upon a time, Atlanta, Baltimore and San Francisco just do not look great this year.
Here is the team I’ve put together:

QB Matt Ryan Atl
WR Steve Smith Sr. Bal
WR Mohamed Sanu Atl
RB Terrance West Bal
RB Shaun Draughn SF
TE Jacob Tamme Atl
K Matt Bryant Atl
DEF Baltimore Bal
Yeah, I know…yikes.  That’s as good as it gets from those 3 teams, with guys like Julio Jones, Devonta Freeman and Carlos Hyde having been drafted.  I’ll track this teams success and only sub in for injuries or bye weeks.


Just as a reminder, prizes this season are the same as last year… $50 per week to the highest scoring team, $45 to 4th Place, $67 to 3rd, $113 to 2nd and $225 to the Champion!  I’ll send out separate emails to anyone still owing money for this season.


Now, there’s only one thing left to say…

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!?!?