Fantasy Football

BBY Dream Team League Draft Grades 2022

bradleybertoniere Draft Guide, Fantasy Football, NFL ,

BBY Dream Team League Draft Grades 2022

  1. Trey

Trey had to make his choice of two players pretty much.  The transcendent Johnathan Taylor that had a monster year last year for Trey or the back-to-back disappointment CMC.  ESPN ADP shows Taylor as 1.4 and CMC 3.2, so Trey decides to run it back with JT.  He did a disservice to the stud RB last season, and he is hoping to make up for it.  A mere 22 picks later and Trey was on the clock again.  He was targeting Mark Andrews but had to pivot when he was snatched by Joe a few picks prior.  Trey had some Round 3 and 4 targets, but I think the Andrews pick messed him up a little.  He winds up going with Kyle Pitts and Travis Etienne.  I like both players this season, but I don’t like them at this draft position.  I think Trey reached a bit for both players.  I had Pitts last year and I think Mariota coming to town and Drake London being there to take away some pressure will help for sure.  But the draft capital given up was passing on Chubb, Tyreek Hill, AJ Brown, Tee Higgins, Zeke, etc.  I agree in the fact that neither guy was coming back to Trey, so if he is high on these two then I can understand him taking his shot.  But Etienne’s ESPN ADP was 55.  Yahoo’s ADP was 47.5.  FantasyPros ADP was 42.7, which is a little better.  Trey took him at 25.  It’s only a reach if you’re wrong Trey.  At the end of the 4th round he went Miles Sanders and then Lamar Jackson.  I like the Lamar Jackson pick, but I think Trey could’ve gone wideout here.  Miles Sanders has been a huge disappointment.  This is the last season on his rookie contract, so the motivation is there, and the Eagles have one of the best offensive lines in football right now.  Lately I feel like players on contract years haven’t played hard, rather they have sat out a lot and tried to do everything in their power to protect themselves to try and be healthy for a new contract.  Back in the day players would go nuts trying everything to earn that second contract.  Those days might be gone as the priority has shifted from prove it to secure it.  In Rounds 6 and 7 Trey goes Allen Robinson and Allen Lazard.  Respect for the Double Allen picks.  I like the Robinson pick.  Kupp will get the top corners.  Robinson should thrive in the previous Robert Woods role in the Rams offense.  Stafford will be by far the best Qb he’s ever played with.  Career year in store?  He was a huge disappoint for me last season, but again he was on the final year of his contract, so it appeared that he gave bare minimum effort.  Hard to know if it was just horrific Qb play, effort, or a bit of both.  Lazard appears to be Rodgers new #1 WR.  We’ll see if he spreads it around more now that Adams is gone, but Lazard should receive a fair share of targets.  Does he have the talent to play against top CBs though?  In Rounds 8 and 9 Trey goes back-to-back wideouts again with Tyler Lockett and Elijah Moore.  Trey loaded up on Wr in the back half of the draft, drafting a total of 8 Wrs compared to 4 Rbs.

Draft Grade: C-.  His core of Lamar Jackson, JT, and Pitts will be a good floor, but Wide Receiver room and Rb depth is bad.  Not Trey’s best performance.

  1. Brad

Coming off his impressive failure of a season at 3-11, Brad was rewarded with the 2nd overall pick in this year’s draft.  CMC was the correct choice.  In games he played and finished last season he was his normal fantasy monster-self averaging 20.1 fantasy points.  In the 2nd Round Brad was also targeting Mark Andrews, but when Joe picked him, Brad had to pivot.  His consolation prize was GB Rb Aaron Jones.  Jones was serviceable for Brad last season, but not as a Rb1.  Some analysts are very high on Jones this season, thinking the Adams target share will be divided up with the running backs seeing the biggest increase.  If that comes to fruition, then Jones floor might pick up a bit and help to eliminate many of the single digit fantasy contests he had last season (5).  In the 3rd round Brad was torn between Nick Chubb and Tee Higgins.  Knowing this league and the proclivity of Rb shortages throughout the season, Brad went conservative, hoping that he can get some decent wide receivers in the middle rounds.  This gives Brad a solid three-headed monster at Rb with CMC, Jones, and Chubb.  At the end of the 4th round Brad new he had to go wideout and had his choices of Sutton, Jeudy, Waddle or Amon-Ra.  After going Sutton banking on AFC West shootouts, Brad got Waddle in the 5th.  Jaylen Waddle finished as WR#14 with 141 targets, 104 receptions, 1015 yards and 6 touchdowns in his rookie debut.  That was against CB#1’s.  This season Tyreek Hill joins the Fins squad and will draw much attention away from Waddle, who fits perfectly into new head coach Mike McDaniel’s offense.  I loaded up on Waddle in Best Ball this offseason.  At the end of Round 6 Brad’s target was Dameon Pierce, but Moose snagged him 5 picks ahead of me.  So I went with Gabe Davis who had fallen passed his ADP and seemed like a good value at that drafting position.  If he can pick up where he left off in the playoffs then this would be a steal for Brad.  In Round 7 Brad gets his Qb in Jalen Hurts.  I wanted to secure a running Qb in this year’s draft to try and get a higher floor at the Qb position.  The addition of AJ Brown should help Hurts fantasy value.  By drafting Hurts Brad passed on Dalton Schultz, TJ Hockensen, and Dallas Goedert at tight end, a decision that might come back to bite him in the ass this season.  Once those three went Brad had to wait on TE.  So at the back of the 8th round he went oft-injured Rashad Penny.  Seahawks resigned Penny and drafted Ken Walker.  I believe Walker was drafted as a replacement for Chris Carson.  As usual look for the Seahawks to start the healthiest of their backs throughout the season.  In Round 9 Brad reached for rookie wideout George Pickens.  He has looked like a monster this preseason, so this was more of a flier/instinct type of pick.  In Round 10 Brad went Bills D/St.  There are a couple of start and forget defenses out there and the Bills are one of them.  They are favored in 15 out of 17 games.  If teams are playing from behind against the Bills it opens the possibility for more sacks and interceptions, sticky stats for fantasy defenses.  In Round 11 Brad finally drafted a tight end in Dawson Knox.  Knox was very effective in the red zone last season.  He recently lost his brother and I believe the Bills are going to rally around Knox and try to get him a touchdown in Week 1 as a sign of support and love for the tragedy his family is currently going through.

Draft Grade: B+.  Can’t get an A if you are the first team to draft a defense.  Those are the rules.

  1. JD

Dizzle goes Ekeler at 3rd overall.  I probably would have gone JJ or Kupp here, but if you are going to strategically go RB I had Ekeler as my 3rd back after JT and CMC.  Chargers defense got a lot better this offseason with the addition of Khalil Mack and they have a legit chance to make a deep playoff run.  Getting their star Rb isn’t a bad start to the draft.  In Round 2 JD got CeeDee Lamb.  Phenomenal pick.  Lamb should be busy this season with Amari Cooper now a Brown, James Washington out for the season, and Michael Gallup rehabbing an injury.  His main target competition in the offense is Dalton Schultz and rookie Jalen Tolbert.  Lamb has Top 5 wideout potential.  In the 3rd JD went Keenan Allen.  Sticking with the Chargers theme.  I didn’t like this pick as much.  I think Mike Williams quietly overtook Allen last season and seems to fit a little better in this offense.  I had Tyreek Hill, AJ Brown, Tee Higgins, and Mike Evans all ranked higher than Allen this season.  In the 4th JD went Diontae Johnson.  He read that the shoulder injury he sustained in the preseason game was minor and that he could have finished the game if it was a real game, so JD felt confident in picking him.  I’m less confident considering the Steelers offensive line looks like crap and there is a very real chance Mitch Trubisky is the starting Qb.  Johnson got a ton of targets from dead-armed Big Ben and I don’t think a younger arm will have that many short throws this season.  In Round 5 JD went with Patrick Mahomes.  I’m surprised he didn’t go Herbert to just go all in with the Chargers, but Mahomes was a good pick to diversify his team a bit.  Chiefs offensive line is looking strong and their defense isn’t.  A good sign for Mahomes potential this season.  In Round 6 JD goes Chase Edmonds as his Rb2.  I think Edmonds will start for the Dolphins and catch a lot of passes.  Decent value at this point in the draft.  In Round 7 he went Drake London, rookie for Atlanta.  I don’t really have an opinion about Drake London except that he should get a decent amount of targets.  In Round 8 JD got his tight end in Zach Ertz.  Ertz could see an uptick in targets to start the year with Hopkins suspended and Marquise Brown having a weird offseason (had a small hamstring injury to start camp and then got arrested earlier this month for ‘criminal speeding’).  My favorite late round pick for JD was Khalil Herbert in Round 12.  I could see him overtaking Montgomery as the lead back in the Bears offense this season.  He looked great last year.  And you took him one pick before me, which hurt a lot.

Draft Grade: C.  I just really didn’t like the Allen pick.  Weakness is Wr2, Flex and Tight End.

  1. Joe

Joe starts off by going with LSU legend Ja’Marr Chase at 4.  I love Burrow and Chase, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t like this pick over Kupp and other LSU-stud Justin Jefferson.  Bengals offensive line improved, but their schedule draw was brutal.  In the 2nd Round Joe goes with Mark Andrews.  Great pick.  Andrews may have already surpassed Kelce as the best route-running tight end in the league.  He surely passed Kelce last season finishing as Tight End #1.  It’s like having a Top-5 Rb in a spot where people are chasing a miracle touchdown.  Difference making pick right here.  In Round 3 he goes Cam Akers as his Rb1.  I loved Akers in the summer of 2021 before he tore his achilles.  He was able to come back from it and looks poised to start for the SB Champion Rams.  I think Henderson will get a decent amount of work and the Rams will go with the healthiest back each week.  Both Akers and Henderson had to deal with soft tissue issues this offseason, but both look on track to be ready for week 1.  In Round 4, part of the rounds that many fantasy experts have titled “The Running Back Dead Zone” Joe takes a Running Back in Clyde Edwards-Helaire.  He had a rough year last year.  Unbeknownst to many people he had gallbladder surgery in the offseason, which caused him to lose a bunch of weight.  He then had ankle, knee, and shoulder injuries throughout the season.  The Chiefs offensive line is good.  But they signed Ronald Jones via free agency and drafted Isiah Pacheco albeit with pick number 251.  We’ve passed cutdown day as I’m writing this and it looks like the Chiefs are going to roll with CEH, Jones, McKinnon and Pacheco.  We’ll see if CEH can get the lions share or if he takes more of a third down, hurry up offseason type of role.  In Round 5 Joe goes Jerry Judge Jeudy as his Wr #2.  Jeudy has a legit chance at a third-year breakout with Wilson under center and I could see him having a better season than Sutton.  I was torn on which Denver Wideout to take and wind-up going Sutton.  Will be interesting to see how Wilson slings it.  Loved Joe’s 6th round pick in Tony Pollard.  Many teams are going with RB rotations now-a-days to keep their star Rb’s fresh.  Pollard was right there with Zeke last season.  In Round 7 Joe goes Adam Thielen.  He is trending towards the end of his career but I could see another double digit touchdown season out of him before he fades into the sunset.  While everyone is focused on JJ, it could happen this season.  Good repour with Cousins.  Good red zone skills.  Not a bad Wr3.  Russ Wilson in Round 8 and Justin Tucker in Round 9.

Draft Grade: C+.  Really didn’t like Joe taking Chase over JJ and Kupp.  Running Backs are gross but could also work out in a weird way.  I could see this team competing for a playoff spot.

  1. Tommy

Shocker.  Tommy takes Tennessee Titan Derrick Henry at 5.  He’s coming off a foot injury that ended his 2021 campaign early.  He was touching the ball a ridiculous number of times before his injury.  I’m a little concerned with the state of the Titans.  Traded away AJ Brown.  I don’t think Robert Woods, Treylon Burks, and Austin Hooper are going to demand the same respect as AJB, but if Henry can pick up where he was last season this could be a great pick.  In the 2nd Round Tommy goes Leonard Fournette.  Uncle Lenny is an okay pick.  He should receive all the goal line work, could catch a lot more check downs this season.  Big concern is the offensive line for the Bucs.  Losing their center and then another center and then their left guard.  Interior pressure is Brady’s weakness.  They will need to get that shored up fast.  I probably would have gone Andrews here but can understand the rationale of going second Rb in this league.  In Round 3 Tommy gets his Wr#1 in Tyreek “The Freak” Hill.  I’ve had Tyreek a few times in this league because of the 50+ yard touchdown bonus.  We all know he can take it to the house at any time with his blazing speed.  Let’s see how Tua does with his new weapon.  In Round 4 Tommy went DK Metcalf.  There have always been talented wideouts with bad Qb’s.  Metcalf is no different.  In Round 5 Tommy gets the oft-injured Kittle.  I wrote about Kittle in the draft grades last year when Chase took him.  I described how his playing style is conducive to injuries.  He is a super-aggressive, old school football player who loves contact.  It makes him a beast when he is running with the football after catch.  But he does typically miss a good bit of time.  I like Kareem Hunt in Round 6.  Rumored to be a potential trade candidate, Hunt was trending as a Top 10 Rb before getting hurt last season.  Will be interesting to watch if he does move or if he sticks with his 1B role with Chubb in Cleveland.  Tommy goes Bateman in Round 7 and Joe Burrow in Round 8.

Draft Grade: B-.  I like Tommy’s starters.  Worried about lack of depth, but he drafted a super talented roster.

  1. Jen

Love the Justin Jefferson pick at 6.  Some analysts have put him over Cooper Kupp to finish as Wr #1 this season based on talent, scheme-fit, and schedule.  Great pick.  In Round 2 Jen goes James Conner.  I like Conner a lot.  I don’t think I would have taken him over Leonard Fournette or Aaron Jones, but he has a lot of potential.  Chase Edmonds is now a Dolphin and Conner was a touchdown machine last season with a whopping 15 tuddies.  In Round 3 Jen takes Jets rookie Breece Hall.  This was a little early in my opinion.  Hall is very talented, but it looks like he’ll split time with Michael Carter at least to start the season. Taking him over Zeke and some of the stud wideouts that were available was egregious.  In Round 4 Jen goes Terry McLaurin, which I liked a lot.  McLaurin might have his best Qb in Carson Wentz this season, which isn’t saying much.  He’s a super talented wideout that should be a great Wr2 for Jen.  In Round 5 Jen went Darren Waller the Baller.  Waller was injured last year and I thought he was injured much of this offseason too.  But I didn’t realize that Waller wasn’t practicing because his contract didn’t become fully guaranteed until Week 1.  He didn’t want to risk getting hurt prior to the season starting.  Look for him to be his normal self when coming back, he just must compete with Davante Adams and Hunter Renfrow for targets.  In Round 6 Jen goes Ken Walker at Rb.  I thought this was a miss.  He had just gone through Hernia surgery and might miss some time to start the season.  He’ll be competing with Rashad Penny to start at Rb on a potentially bad Seahawks team.  Jen drafted him over Kareem Hunt, Tony Pollard, and Chase Edmonds, all Rbs who I had ranked much higher than Ken Walker.  In Round 7 Jen takes Antonio Gipson.  Gipson has had a weird career.  Rookie year he balls out.  Sophomore year he breaks his leg but plays through it.  Now in his third year he appeared to lose his starting gig to rookie Rb. Brian Robinson, only to have Brian Robinson get shot in a robbery the day before our draft.  Robinson seems like he’ll be okay, but just super weird and I don’t know how to rank Gipson this season.  In Round 8 Jen gets Aaron Rodgers.  In Round 9 Chris Olave.

Draft Grade: D.  I don’t like being harsh on draft grades, but I felt like Jen was drafting a round-ahead on every pick after Round 1.  She has some potential with very talented Wr1 and Wr2 a bunch of young rookies, but I feel like this team could have been a lot better from this draft position.

  1. Mustafa

Well what’s up, Cooper Kupp? At 7?! How do you do?  2021 Fantasy Wr #1 had an incredible season that helped fuel Chase’s Super Bowl run.  He now finds himself in 4-time champion Moose’s squad.  In Round 2 Moose got Saquon Barkley.  I was enjoying drafting 3rd round Barkley in Best Ball this summer as he slowly climbed up draft boards.  In my other league he went 12th overall pick.  Solid Rb#1 for Moose.  Only concern is Daniel Jones.  The Giants declined his fifth-year option and he’s looked like crap this preseason.  In Round 3 Moose goes AJ Brown.  I like Brown’s fit on the Eagles.  Very talented and a bit jaded, I could see him putting some monster numbers.  Moose shocks the free world by going Qb in Round 4.  Josh Allen has MVP potential being the leader of the Super Bowl favorite Buffalo Bills.  He runs, he passes, and he is tough.  A-okay with the pick here.  In Round 5 Moose goes Michael Thomas.  Slantboy is a high risk/high reward pick.  I liked Amon-Ra over him this year, but if he can come back to his previous self, the Saints offense can be scary.  They weren’t going to wait for him though, adding rookie Chris Olave and free agent Jarvis Landry this offseason. Turning a big-time weakness from 2021 into a big-time strength in 2022.  In Round 6 Moose took my target in rookie Dameon Pierce.  Evan Silva was high on Pierce after the NFL draft believing he had the best path of any rookie running back to become an early season starter.   As fate would have it, it certainly appears Silva was correct as the Texans just released Marlon Mack and will move forward with Pierce and Rex Burkhead as their top two backs.  In Round 7 Moose goes Rhamondre Stevenson, which is a great pick.  The Patriots backfield has begun a consolidation process that has left it down to Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson and I would prefer to have Stevenson this season.  In Round 8 Moose took my target again with Dallas Geodert, getting him a solid tight end on a good Eagles team.  Then Moose got some running back depth and rookie wideouts to build his bench.

Draft Grade: A.  If I had drafted at 7 my team would have looked very similar to this team.  Only exception being Michael Thomas.  Well executed draft by the league Super Bowl victory leader.

  1. Mike

Najee Harris at 8.  I probably would have gone Dalvin Cook in this position, but I can see the allure of Harris, who is looking to have another year with a very large quantity of touches.  My biggest concern is the Steelers offensive line.  Brandon Thorn, offensive line analyst and expert, ranked the Steelers in the “Bottom Feeders” category and dead last 32/32 in his rankings for this season.  Add the fact that there could be a rookie Qb or Mitch Trubisky starting for this team and I’m out.  The day after our draft news came out that Harris was battling through a Lisfranc foot injury this offseason.  He is a stud, but I would start lessening your expectations now and hope to be pleasantly surprised if he finishes as a Top 10 back.   In Round 2 you went Javonte Williams, talented Rb for the super hyped Broncos.  I had Barkley and a few wideouts ranked higher than Williams, but I can respect you going Rb-Rb to start the draft in this league.  In Round 3 you went Tee Higgins and I loved this pick.  I almost took him 7 picks prior at pick #26.  Very talented and was right there with Ja’Marr Chase towards the end of last season.  In Round 4 you went Josh Jacobs.  I’m going to give you the exact same rant I gave my younger brother who drafted Josh Jacobs in the 4th round in my other league.  The Raiders offensive line is not great (ranked 27/32 according to Brandon Thorn).  They drafted Zamir White in Round 4 of the NFL Draft.  They have Brandon Bolden and Ameer Abdullah for 3rd down and hurry up offense snaps, which are valuable in fantasy.  Josh McDaniels is the new head coach.  They declined Jacobs 5th year option.  They could run him until his wheels fall off since they don’t have to resign him next year.  Back in the day I feel like contract year players played better as they were trying to earn it.  But recently I’ve seen players milk smaller injuries or not play as hard to protect themselves so that they can get a new contract and gain more security as I mentioned in Trey’s section.   I can stomach Jacobs as a Rb#3 but drafting him over some very talented wideouts that were available like McLaurin, Sutton, Jeudy, Metcalf, Waddle was pretty bad.  In Round 5, Mike went Darnell Mooney. He should receive the Lions share of the Bears targets this season considering he is the only wideout who’s name I know on that team.  I’m bearish on the Bears this season.  I’m BEARISH.  I loved the Chris Godwin pick in Round 6.  I think there is tremendous value there.  He is coming back from injury but miraculously might have a shot to play Week 1.  I look for him to start off slow and then pick up as the season progresses especially with Gronk gone.  I loved what you did in Rounds 7 and 8 drafting Dalton Schultz and then pairing him with Dak Prescott.  Gives you a solid Qb-Te combo.  Schultz should get a lot of targets this year.  Brandon Thorn ranked the Dallas offensive line as #6/32.  Of course, that was BEFORE their starting Left Tackle Tryon Smith tore his hamstring, which will sideline him for a couple of months at least.  Thorn reduced the Cowboys line ranking from #6 to #20.  I really liked Mike’s late round picks this season.  Skyy Moore, Nico Collins, James Cook, and Jerick McKinnon.

Draft Grade: B-  If offensive lines didn’t matter this might be an “A” team.   I’m really torn on this grade.  On one side I see Dak/Schultz stack, Najee, Tee Higgins, Godwin and I think wow Mike did a great job.  On the other I see Najee, Josh Jacobs and I’m like, man Mike really bombed this.

  1. Scotty

Man I don’t know what got into Scotty, but he crushed his draft this season.  In the first round he went Joe Mixon who I’m very high on this season after the Bengals signed Ted Karras at Center, Alex Kappa at Guard, and La’el Collins at right tackle via free agency.  They went heavy defense in the draft and you know teams will have to respect the passing game, opening up lanes for Mixon to replicate his 2021 career year.  In Round 2 Deebo Samuel was a big time reach for me.  This is when the autodraft can come back to bite you in the ass.  The ESPN autodraft went on a Wide Receiver and Qb tear for Scotty loading up with 6 wideouts and 3 quarterbacks compared to 3 running backs.  I know Scotty was beat up inside for having to miss the draft, so I’m not going to sit here and ream him for it.  Sometimes life gets in the way and he was going through a dinner involving his company being acquired by another and I completely understand.  Take care of your business man.  With that being said, this team has a sick trio of wideouts in Deebo-Evans-Moore.  Solid Rb1, Solid Qb1, Solid TE1.  And your Rb2 isn’t even that bad if he can replicate some his success from last season.  (Cordarrelle Patterson).  This may not be the team you drafted, but this is your team.  Manage the hell out of it and see what you can do with it.  This team is like life.  You can’t control the hand you got dealt, but you can control how you play the hand.

Draft Grade: N/A

  1. Chase

The Defending Super Bowl Champion drafts from the 10 spot.  Dalvin Cook drops to him like a gift from the heavens. A sure-fire Top 5 Rb this season.  In the 2nd he gets Travis Kelce.  In the post-Tyreek Hill era of the Chiefs the offense will go through Travis Kelce.  Love this pick.  I took him at the 10/11 turn in my 10-man league.  In Round 3 he went JK Dobbins over Zeke, which I thought was interesting.  I have Zeke higher than Dobbins this season.  In Round 4 he gets his Wr#1 in Michael Pittman.  Pittman should replicate his success from last year even with the Qb change from Carson Wentz to Matt Ryan.  Defenses have to respect JT and the running game, should open up Pittman to scoring opportunities.  In Round 5, Chase selected the Sun-God, Amon-Ra St. Brown.  Going to be fun to watch these two young stud wide receivers this season.  In Round 6 Chase drafts JuJu Smith-Schuster.  It’s hard to know where JuJu is these days.  He was just catching balls from an old statue with a noodle arm for the past two seasons and now he goes to Patrick Mahomes.  He’ll play from the slot, so between Kelce and JuJu Chase has the middle of the field covered.  In Rounds 7 and 8 Chase goes AJ Dillon and DeAndre Hopkins.  Hopkins is a stash and Dillon is a Flexcuff.  Top 10 potential if Jones goes down, but stand-alone value if needed in a pinch.  In Round 9 he goes Trey Lance, getting him a running Qb and in Round 10 he goes Alexander Mattison to backup Dalvin Cook.  Favorite late round picks were Darrell Henderson and Kenneth Gainwell.

Draft Grade: B+.  I think highly of this draft, but the Dobbins over Zeke pick befuddles me.

  1. Kenny

K-Dub rolled up at pick #9 when he picked at #11.  Classic.  He goes D’Andre Swift in the first.  Most analysts had him as a 2nd rounder, but if you liked him more than the other 2nd round running backs I get the rationale to pick him at #11.  In the 2nd you go Davante Adams.  I think Adams is going to be his normal self.  He might have a little more competition for targets with Waller the Baller and Renfrow there, but he is still Adams.  His connection with Derek Carr should be shown immediately since they played college ball together at Fresno State.  In the 3rd Kenny went Elijah Mitchell.  Always good to get the starting Rb for the 49ers.  Mitchell had a few different injuries last season, but when he was on the field he was a solid fantasy producer.  I would have drafted Zeke over him here though.  In Round 4 Kenny goes Mike Williams.  I love this pick.  Could easily finish as a Top 12 wideout and gives you a solid Wr duo in Adams-Williams.  In Round 5 Kenny goes Kyler Murray to get him a Top 5 Qb.  In Round 6 he goes Devin Singletary.  I can see Singletary being a fringe Top 25 Rb if he picks up where he left off last season.  Depends on how much action James Cook takes from him.  Bills are favored in 15/17 games this season, so probably not a bad thing to have their starting running back for when they are trying to run out the clock at the end of games.  In Round 7 Kenny took talent over situation with Amari Cooper.  It’s not pretty.  But Cooper is a pretty good wideout.  Yes Jacoby Brissett will be passing him the football the first 11 weeks of the season, but he could have a strong finish once Deshaun Watson comes back from suspension at the end of the year.  He is the sure fire #1 wideout on a run first team.  In Round 8 Kenny takes the other NE Rb in Damien Harris.  If Stevenson goes down this could be a huge value pick for Kenny.  Will be interesting to watch how they split the work this year.  I loved the MVS pick in Round 9.  Chiefs signed him for 3 years hoping to stretch the offense like he did in Green Bay, opening up the middle for Kelce and JuJu to work.  I don’t know how much fantasy value he’ll have this season, but if the AFC West has as many shootouts as I think they could, then having a bomb-catching guy in the flex won’t be a bad thing some weeks.  In Round 10 you drafted Mike Gesicki as your starting Tight End.  I don’t like this pick at all.  Gesicki should be the third pass catching option on the Dolphins behind Tyreek Hill and Waddle, but word from Dolphins camp has been that he hasn’t fit into Mike McDaniels offense very well.  At one point there were trade rumors involving Gesicki because of this lack of fit.  They have decided to keep him, so we’ll see how it works out.  McDaniels came from the 49ers and Gesicki is no George Kittle when it comes to physicality and blocking.

Draft Grade: A-.  Solid draft by Kenny, will compete like he has the past couple of seasons.  Can he make 3 Super Bowls in a row?

  1. Katon

Nice of Katon to take a break from opening Amazon fulfillment centers and impregnating his wife to draft in our fantasy league.  Katon starts out with Alvin Kamara and Stefon Diggs giving him a solid Rb#1 and Wr#1.  All signs point to Kamara’s suspension being next season due to delays in court dates from the incident at the Pro Bowl in Las Vegas where he beat a guy resulting in the man’s hospitalization.  In the 3rd round Katon goes David Montgomery, my least favorite pick of his and then in the 4th round he goes Zeke, which was a great pick in my opinion.  Montgomery doesn’t fit the new offense that well, the Bears offense looks rough and they’ll be playing against the Packers talent-packed defense and the competitive Viking and Lion teams this season.  At the end of Round 5 Katon got tremendous value in Brandin Cooks.  He is consistently a top 25 wideout and gets zero respect because he doesn’t go off like some of the super stars at the position.  But he is a solid producer.  You paired him with Hunter Renfrow.  He did great at the end of last season, but with Adams coming over and Darren Waller’s return I could see his volume reduce dramatically.  In Round 7 he drafted Christian Kirk.  I loved this pick.  Jacksonville believes in his abilities, and they paid him like he is Trevor Lawrence’s new Wr#1 (4 year, $72 million).  This contract reset the Wide Receiver market and set off a chain of events that led to Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, and AJ Brown all being traded.  I’m bullish on the Jaguars and I’m guessing Kirk averages double digit targets per game.  In Round 8 you took Devonta Smith, which I don’t care for.  He is a very good route runner and reminds me of Marvin Harrison at times, but Jalen Hurts is no Peyton Manning.  AJ Brown could open things up for Smith, but Hurts has to get him the ball.  I don’t know if Smith will be relevant in fantasy this season other than a bye week flier in the flex or if the team is devasted by injuries.  In Round 12 Katon took his shot and drafted Brian Robinson.  Nothing wrong with shooting the moon for running back depth.  Katon didn’t want to miss his shot.  Do you know who didn’t miss their shot either?  The robber that shot Brian Robinson multiple times mere hours before we drafted.  In all seriousness I hope Brian is okay.  Signs point to him being able to return to football at some point this season, which is great.

Draft Grade: B.  Really didn’t like the Montgomery pick but made up for it with the Zeke and Christian Kirk picks.

Draft Grades in Order:

Mustafa: A

Kenny: A-

Brad: B+

Chase: B+

Katon: B

Tommy: B-

Mike: B-

Joe: C+

JD: C

Trey: C-

Jen: D

Scotty: N/A

If Travis Etienne and Breece Hall finish as Top 10 Rb’s this season, I’ll write Trey and Jen an official apology.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

-The Commish

Mary Anne Smith League 2022 Draft Grades

bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL, Rankings ,

Draft Grades By Bradley:

  1. Quentin

Quentin trades his entire draft to Michael Kelly for the 8th pick drafting position except for the 7thround where Quentin gets Mike’s pick for his 12th.  Insane!  Who gives up the 1st overall pick!  Quentin with the 8th pick takes Ja’Marr Chase.  I famously gave Andy a ton of crap last season for taking Chase in the 5th round.  I said it was a reach and he looked rusty during the preseason.  Little did I know.  Here he is as a first-round pick.  In the 2nd round Quentin takes Alvin Kamara.  He gets to root for LSU and the Saints this season.  Loved the AK pick.  His trial will most likely be after the season, giving Quentin first round value in the 2nd round.  In the 3rd round Quentin takes James Conner.  All signs point to Conner be a stud this season now that Chase Edmonds is playing with the fishes in Miami.  Love Quentin’s first 3 rounds.  In the 4th round he gets great value with the Mike Evans pick.  I passed on Evans due to emotional reasons not rational reasons.  I just don’t want to root for the guy.  He always fights with the Saints cornerbacks.  Great player, great value, not interested.  I’m glad Quentin remained emotionally intelligent for this pick, even if it isn’t aesthetically pleasing for me.  In Round 5 Quentin takes Elijah Mitchell.  49ers run game is always a good buy in fantasy.  The concern here is Elijah has had some injury concerns.  Quentin’s message to him this season? “Elijah, I’m looking for a mind at work.”  Q goes Justin Herbert in the 6th getting him a stud Qb.  He gets great value in the 7th and 8th with JuJu and Dalton Schultz.  The Schultz pick shored up Quentin’s team to not have any weaknesses and ensuring he is going to compete this season.  He reached on a kicker, but he wanted his guy and he got him. 

 

Draft Grade: B.  His team is solid, but I can’t give out an A when you have the coveted first overall pick and you cast it aside like yesterday’s garbage. 

   

  1. Josh

Josh had the most Josh draft I could imagine.  He started off with my Super Bowl darling Johnathan Taylor after Mike passed on him.  Josh then went Tyreek Hill in the 2nd round.  I like Tyreek the Freak, don’t get me wrong, but it was egregious to pick him before CeeDee Lamb, Aaron Jones, Deebo Samuel, Tee Higgins and even Kyle Pitts.  CeeDee is projected to go nuts this season after Amari Cooper was shipped to Cleveland.  Michael Gallup isn’t 100% yet and James Washington is out for the season (he took Cooper’s spot this offseason).  Tyreek is a unique player and his speed is ridiculous.  But from a player value stand point I didn’t like this pick.  I liked Deebo Samuel in the 3rdround.  Even if he doesn’t play wide-back as he called it, he was balling out from a WR standpoint last season.  He can take it to the house after catch and I know Shanahan will be dialing up plays to get him open in space.  Just need Trey Lance to get it there.  Next you went Cam Akers.  Cam was able to come back after tearing his achilles.  Word from Rams camp is they are going to split Cam and Henderson this season, but both are working through soft tissue injuries right now.  It may not be a matter of splitting, it might be a matter of playing the healthier of the two any given week.  Akers was high on my draft sheet last year before he got injured.  Let’s see how he looks this year, but I like him as a Rb2.  Josh goes Patrick Mahomes after a trade with Max.  Mahomes-JT-Deebo is a nice core to build this team around.  The obvious weakness of Josh’s team is Tight End where he had to snag Zach Ertz and Cole Kmet.  Ertz might not be a bad value in the 10th round.  With D-Hop out to start the season and Marquise Brown having a weird offseason (had a small hamstring injury to start camp and then got arrested earlier this month for ‘criminal speeding’).  Ertz might get an uptick in targets to start off the year.  For Cole Kmet, I imagine he too will get a lot of targets considering the Bears Wide Receiver Room is complete and utter trash. 

 

Draft Grade: C.  Tradition is tradition Josh.  JT, Tyreek and Deebo can take it to the house at any moment.  Little concerned about Rb depth. 

 

  1. Ben

Big Ben goes Derrick Henry with the 3rd pick.  Henry is a monster.  He’s coming off a foot injury that ended his 2021 campaign early.  He was touching the ball a ridiculous amount of times before his injury.  I’m a little concerned with the state of the Titans.  Traded away AJ Brown.  I don’t think Robert Woods, Treylon Burks, and Austin Hooper are going to demand the same respect as AJB.  Ben is so obsessed with Chris Herren he had to draft a player with a last name with similiar letters as him with his first pick.  In the 2nd round he went D’Andre Swift and I have no quarrels with this pick.  Swift is a very talented running back and the Lions are going to be fun to root for this year.  Then he went Nick Chubb.  That’s a nasty three headed monster at running back.  I’m sure he will receive lots of trade requests during the season and I’m sure he is going to ignore all of them.  When everyone in this league tries to hit their ball over a hill to the left, Ben hits his shot to the ditch to the right.  For the win.  Then Ben goes Mike Williams in the 4th round.  Williams has arguably passed up Keenan Allen as the number one wide receiver for the LA Chargers who are looking like a Super Bowl contender this season.  Then he went George Kittle to try and shore up a difficult tight end position that seems to fall off of a cliff after the top 2 or 3.  In Rounds 6 and 7 he tried to shore up his wide receiver room with Jerry Juedy and Darnell Mooney.  I’m bullish on the Broncos and bearish on the Bears… I’m BEARISH.  I like the Jeudy pick a lot.  Ben got his starting Qb in Round 8 with Joe “Big D” Burrow.  And in Round 13 he got Dak Prescott.  Tremendous value for Ben there.

 

Draft Grade: A.  Team is smooth as a Herbsaint Old Fashioned

 

  1. Max

We are less than 48 hours since we concluded our fantasy draft at Lots of Luck Bar in New Orleans.  I’m sitting at the Dallas airport with two hours to kill before my flight to Sacramento.  Since we drafted Max has had one running back get shot and another running back come out with foot injury concerns.  Max’s horrendous luck continues from last season.  I will do my best to grade these based on my thoughts heading into the draft and not the most recent updates which were unbeknownst to Max at the time of the draft.  In the first round he went Najee Harris.  I had Ekeler, Jefferson, and Kupp ranked higher than Najee and I read that the Steelers offensive line isn’t that great.  I personally would not have taken Najee.  But I get it.  300 touch guy with Derrick Henry off the board at 3.   I can see the allure of a running back here.  I probably would have gone Dalvin Cook over Najee too.  In the 2nd round I loved the Mark Andrews pick.  He was the real reason I won the title last year.  Max knows this and he isn’t going to make the same mistake twice.  Solid pick of Tee Higgins in the 3rd.  I don’t think I would’ve been able to pass on Javonte Williams here, but Tee is a monster.  Max went with Terry McLaurin in the 4th.  I’ll never complain about someone taking a great wideout with a bad qb that is a solid producer.  In Round 5 he traded with Josh to move up and snag Michael Thomas.  Every Saints fan is hoping Mike Thomas is healthy this season, but the Saints weren’t going to wait for him as they shored up the WR room with the additions of Chris Olave and Jarvis Landry.   In Round 6 he went Lamar Jackson to pair with Mark Andrews.  LOVE IT.  That is an awesome stack.  The 10 point touchdowns are going to be devastating for the teams you face this season.  In the next couple rounds he added Miles Sanders and Kareem Hunt.  Miles is in a contract year and the Eagles have the best offensive line according to Brandon Thorn, offensive line expert.  I like the pick.  The Eagles refuse to unleash Miles Sanders, so now that his contract is on the line, let’s see what type of effort they get out of him.  Kareem Hunt is a good value.  Last season he was a Top 10 running back until he got injured.  The Browns were beat up and couldn’t get right.  Max snagged a couple of Robinson’s in the back half of the draft in Brian and James.  Both have the potential to start for their teams to start the season. 

 

Draft Grade: B+.  Max is going to compete this season.  He just needs a couple running  backs to pan out.  Lamar Jackson-Mark Andrews stack.  Epic.

 

  1. Logan

When other people are gently massaging their draft, Logan decided to fold his four times and whoof it down.  The Mary Anne Smith League Pizza Eating Contest Champion Went Austin Ekeler over the big 3 wideouts.  I’m okay with it.  I personally would have gone JJ or Kupp in a 10 man league, but to each their own.  He was rewarded with his Rb decision in round 2 when he got Stefon Diggs to fall to him giving him a solid Rb1 and Wr1. Javonte Williams in the mid-3rd was a great pick.  Williams is very talented and defenses will have to worry about the passing attack more so than in previous years.  In Round 4 he went Josh Allen giving him the Allen-Diggs stack.  In Round 5 he went Diontae Johnson who recently landed on his shoulder and got roughed up a bit.  Tomlin came back and said he would have gone back in if it was a real game.  So not much of a concern.  The bigger concern is who will be throwing the football and the abhorrent offensive line.  Also, Big Ben targeted Johnson so much because his arm was dead.  I think Johnson’s volume goes down with a younger arm running the offense.   In Round 6 you doubled down on Bills wideouts with Gabe Davis.  If Allen misses time I guess you are just done this year.  Next two picks you started to get your 2nd and 3rd running backs in David Montgomery and Damien Harris.  Montgomery should start for the Bears, but don’t be surprised if the carries are split pretty evenly with Khalil Herbert.  Herbert has shown flashes last season and I could see him overtake Montgomery.  Damien Harris was a decent pick.  The Pats backfield is starting to take shape into a two-horse race with Harris and Stevenson.  If Stevenson misses time you have a solid Rb2.  Next two picks you went with smaller shifty wideouts in Allen Lazard and Hunter Renfrow.  We will see if Lazard can take some of the Adams vacated targets.  Will be interesting to see how the Packers do this season with a solid defense and no Adams.  Hunter Renfrow should be decent.  With defenses having to worry about Adams and Waller, Renfrow could replicate some of his last season success.  Glaring hole in this team is tight end and lack of diversity. 

 

Draft Grade: B for Bills.  Tight end is weak and if Josh Allen misses any time your team will struggle big time. 

 

  1. Andy

After 5 Running Backs come off the board first, Andy got his pick of the 3 big Wideouts.  I didn’t know if he was going to get his beloved Ja’Marr Chase back or what.  He wind up going with 2021 Fantasy Wr #1 in Cooper Kupp.  Can’t argue with that.  In the 2nd Andy went Davante Adams over Stefon Diggs, D’Andre Swift, Mark Andrews.  I think Adams is going to be his normal self.  He might have a little more competition for targets with Waller the Baller and Renfrow there, but he is still Adams.  In Round 3 Andy went Keenan Allen.  I didn’t like this pick at all.  I could stomach the Adams pick, but Allen is getting older now and Mike Williams arguably took over the #1 WR spot on the LA Chargers offense last year.  He also did this over Pitts, Conner, Zeke.  Big miss in my opinion.  In Round 4 Josh Jacobs as Andy’s RB1.  The Raiders offensive line is not great.  They drafted Zamir White in Round 4 of the NFL Draft.  They have Brandon Bolden and Ameer Abdullah for 3rd down and hurry up offense snaps, which are valuable in fantasy.  They declined Jacobs 5th year option.  They could run him until his wheels fall off since they don’t have to resign him next year.  Back in the day I feel like contract year players played better as they were trying to earn it.  But recently I’ve seen players milk smaller injuries or not play as hard to protect themselves so that they can get a new contract and gain more security.  For this to work out as a Rb1 Andy needs touchdowns.  A lot of them.  With defenses having to worry about Adams, Waller, and Renfrow running around, maybe it will open the possibility.  But this looks rough on paper.  Andy started peppering running backs after this pick.  With Breece Hall in Round 5 and JK Dobbins in Round 6.  In Round 7 he made a phenomenal pick in Jalen Hurts.  In Round 8 he got a decent value RB in Cordarrelle Patterson.  He is Atlanta’s #1 rb on the roster and if he can repeat last season could be a serviceable RB2 for Andy.  Andy got DeAndre Hopkins as a stash for when he comes back from suspension.  Then got Pat Friermuth as his TE1. 

 

Draft Grade: C-.  Andy could have started Kupp-Swift-Zeke-Williams and looked a hell of a lot better than Kupp-Adams-Allen-Jacobs.  I was wrong about Andy’s pick Ja’Marr Chase last season.  Am I wrong about Jacobs?

 

  1. Caleb

Love the Justin Jefferson pick in the 1st.  Some analysts think he could finish as this season’s top wideout looking at talent, schedule, and fit.  In the 2nd you went Leonard Fournette.  Uncle Lenny is an okay pick.  He should receive all the goal line work, could catch a lot more check downs this season.  Big concern is the offensive line for the Bucs.  Losing their center and then another center and then their left guard.  Interior pressure is Brady’s weakness.  They will need to get that shored up fast.  I personally would have gone Swift, Diggs, or Andrews here, but I know some fantasy websites have Lenny as a borderline first round pick.  We’ll see how it all shakes out.  In the 3rd Caleb trades with Stephen.  Stephen moves up to snag Kyle Pitts and Caleb gets Zeke.  Giving him a solid Rb duo.   In Round 4 he got Michael Pittman.  I enjoyed having Pittman last season.  He’s a beast.  In Round 5 he got Allen Robinson.  I like this pick.  Kupp will get the top corners.  Robinson should thrive in the previous Robert Woods role in the Rams offense.  Stafford will be by far the best Qb he’s ever played with.  Career year in store?  Caleb goes DK Metcalf, the Manimal with Geno Smith throwing to him this season.  His talent has to have some fantasy value even with the bad Qb situation, right?  In Rounds 7 and 8 Caleb shored up Rb depth with AJ Dillon and Rashad Penny.  In Round 9 he went flier Wideout depth with Toney.  And in Round 10 he got a solid starting tight end in Dallas Goedert.  He gets his starting Qb in Round 12 with 45 year old Tom Brady. 

 

Draft Grade: A.  Solid team.  Will compete.  I don’t care for Brady this season with the offensive line worries.  He is not as mobile at 45 and loses his safety net in Gronk.  But in the 12th round?  The value is there. 

 

  1. Mike

After we all participated in an epic and controversial coaster game, a pop a shot contest, a pizza-eating contest, a punt, pass, kick competition, a field goal competition, and a mini putt tournament for added entries to win the first overall pick; Mike just trades up to get it.  I know those events were fun and we all had a great time, but I love that after all that effort the coveted draft position we were all competing for is just traded away.  Mike sacrificed his 7th round pick for it.  Let’s see how it shakes out.  With the 1st overall pick Mike goes CMC.  Most analysts had JT or CMC here.  Most had JT.  But Mike got his boy.  After two years of Andy not taking care of him, Mike hopes to rekindle the old flame that had him winning titles a few years ago.  At the Round 2/3 turn Mike goes Aaron Jones and CeeDee Lamb.  These two could easily combine for over 200 targets this season.  Aaron Jones will split drives with AJ Dillon, but his potential to load up on receptions this season with the loss of Davante Adams is legitimate.  CeeDee is the star on the Dallas offense now that Cooper is a Brown and Michael Gallup is still rehabbing.  In Round 4 he goes Courtland Sutton and In Round 5 he goes Darren Waller.  I love the Sutton pick, I’m bullish on the Broncos this season.  Waller over Kittle was interesting.  Both have had recent injury concerns.  I didn’t realize that Waller wasn’t practicing because his contract didn’t become fully guaranteed until Week 1.  He didn’t want to risk getting hurt prior to the season starting.  Look for him to be his normal self when coming back, he just must compete with Davante Adams and Hunter Renfrow for targets.  In Round 6 Mike got the Sun-God, Amon-Ra St. Brown.  Stud on the Lions will be a fun WR3 for Mike this season.  In Round 8 he goes Tony Pollard and in Round 9 he goes Trey Lance, securing a running Qb for added fantasy value.  In Round 10 he gets Rhamondre Stevenson, which was just a fantastic pick.  Mike loaded up on depth in the back half of the draft.

Draft Grade: A+.  RB is studly and deep.  WR is studly and deep.  Waller was high risk/high reward.  Lance was high risk/high reward.  QB and TE can be managed via free agency in a ten-man league.     

 

  1. Stephen

After the big 3 wideouts were off the board Stephen goes Dalvin Cook.  Slam dunk Top 5 running back pick right there.  In Round 2 he goes Saquon Barkley, giving him a solid Rb duo to start his draft.  Barkley should get more catches in this offense.  My only concern is Daniel Jones not looking great this preseason and the state of the Giants wide receiver room.  In Round 3 he got aggressive and traded up to snag Kyle Pitts.  Pitts will be a target monster for Atlanta.  In Round 4 he went Travis Etienne, aiming for his own 3-headed monster like my previous Fire and Blood team that had Le’Veon, Gurley, and CMC.  In Round 5 he drafts his first Wideout in Marquise Brown.  In Round 6 he pairs him with Kyler Murray.  He then went on a Wide Receiver tear drafting Brandin Cooks, Rashod Bateman, Drake London, Treylon Burks, Johan Dotson.  Then in Round 13 he got Cook’s handcuff Alexander Mattison. 

Draft Grade: B+.  Nelson Sousa would give Stephen an A+ for this draft, but I’m not Nelson Sousa.  If he can figure out the best two wide receivers to start each week he’ll be a playoff team.  I can imagine this be frustrating throughout the season if he chooses incorrectly most weeks.  The Rb’s might not make it matter but might be hard to manage this team from a psychological standpoint with so many different wideouts on the roster (9). 

  1. Brad

            Brad with the last pick in the draft but got to take two picks back-to-back.  Not a bad spot to be in.  He goes Joe Mixon to lock up his Rb1 and Travis Kelce to get an elite Tight End.  The Bengals added Ted Karras at Center, Alex Kappa at Guard, and La’el Collins at right tackle.  Addressing the offensive line in free agency they were able to focus on defense in the draft.  According to Warren Sharp’s analysis the Bengals drew one of the harder schedules this season with only 5 teams having harder pulls.  The Bengals rushing attack has a favorable schedule to start the season and average OPRK rank for the back half of the year.  In the 3rd and 4th he goes Wideout-Wideout with the DJ-AJ combo.  DJ Moore has 3 seasons of 1100+ yards with random Quarterbacks and AJ Brown was traded to the Eagles, favorites to win the NFC East.  After the DJ-AJ combo Brad goes Jaylen Waddle and Dameon Pierce.  Jaylen Waddle finished as WR#14 with 141 targets, 104 receptions, 1015 yards and 6 touchdowns in his rookie debut.  That was against CB#1’s.  This season Tyreek Hill joins the Fins squad and will draw much attention away from Waddle, who fits perfectly into new head coach Mike McDaniel’s offense.  Dameon Pierce was a huge reach in this draft.  Being drafted ahead of AJ Dillon and David Montgomery.  Evan Silva believes Pierce is the starting running back for the Texans.  I don’t’ think Montgomery survives Khalil Herbert, who Brad snagged a few rounds later.  Brad then went Chris Godwin and Chase Edmonds getting tremendous value.  Godwin’s rehab has look miraculous this offseason and Edmonds was paid like an RB1 for Mike McDaniels, the mastermind behind the 49ers run scheme that has been very successful over the past few seasons.  In the 9th round Brad tried to aggressively trade up and nobody would take the bait.  No problem as the guy Brad wanted dropped to him at the end of the 9th round.  Christian Kirk.  Jacksonville believes in his abilities, and they paid him like he is Trevor Lawrence’s new Wr#1 (4 year, $72 million).  I’m bullish on the Jaguars and guessing Kirk averages double digit targets per game.  In the 10th round Brad shored up his Tight End depth with TJ Hockensen.  Hockensen was a monster last season before being injured.  Brad got Russel Wilson and Matt Stafford to hold down his Qb spot. 

 

Draft Grade: B.  Not a typical Brad team.  Strategy was exposed to be heavy on two things: talent and targets.  We’ll see if the defending Super Bowl champ puts another solid season together or we’ll see if his smaller pass-catching backs are his downfall.        

 

Draft Grades in Order:

  1. Mike: A+
  2. Caleb: A
  3. Ben: A
  4. Stephen: B+
  5. Max: B+
  6. Quentin: B
  7. Logan: B
  8. Brad: B
  9. Josh: C
  10. Andy: C-

 

Bullish on Hogans and Kelly’s this season.  Thanks for reading and good luck! 

BBY Dream Team League: Super Bowl 13 Preview

bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football , ,

I’m alive!  I want to thank everybody for your patience this season.  I haven’t done a write up since the Week 3 Preview/ Week 4 Recap.   And just like that in a blink here we are closing out another year of our fantasy league.  Like many folks out there I lost a few coworkers to what some are calling “The Great Resignation”.  As a leader of people, I jumped in and took on a very difficult task of covering the largest geographical area for my company while maintaining my duties as Manager.  This resulted in a brutal two month stretch that had me questioning why I was even working in the first place.  Add in Benjamin being 3.5 and Anna being 1.5 and you can imagine my 5am to 9pm day of responsibilities took its toll on me.  I also still strive to work on my personal development which includes a daily workout and reading books to further my knowledge and maybe even obtain some wisdom as I go.  With all that being said, I just want to say I appreciate all of you, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do the weekly write up this season, and am excited to present the Super Bowl Preview for our 13th Season.

 

Congratulations to Scotty for winning $200 for Points Leader!  Scotty edged out Kenny 1687 to 1686.9.  That’s right.  Scotty wins $200 by 0.1 Fantasy Points!  

Reminder of Super Bowl Payout unless Teams agree to a different amount: 

Super Bowl Champion: $750

Super Bowl Runner-Up: $200 

 

  1. Chase vs. 3. Kenny

 

Two-time Champion Chase returns to the Title Game for his 4th Super Bowl.  His most recent appearance was the epic Super Bowl 10 where he fell to now Four-time Champion Mustafa.  Of course, he already took care of Mustafa this season in a blowout win in the Final Four match (157.1 to 84.5).  On the other side of the bracket Kenny also blew out his opponent JD (163.3 to 85.7).  Both Bye week playoff teams were ousted in the Semi’s this season.  Kenny is the Defending Super Bowl 12 Champion and returns to the Super Bowl with a chance to repeat.   

 

How They Got Here:

 

Kenny had the 4th pick in the draft and being the Champion he drafted his own Division 1.  He went Zeke-Jacobs-Hopkins to start his draft.  Looking at that on paper you wouldn’t think he would make it to the title game.  Zeke has had a banged up knee and given up a lot of work to Tony Pollard, but despite it all, finds himself ranked #6 Running Back.  Jacobs is 18th Rb and Hopkins is no where to be found due to injury.  Kenny went #1 Qb Josh Allen next then #9 Chris Godwin after that.  Then Logan Thomas.  In the title game Kenny won’t have Hopkins, Godwin, or Logan Thomas.  His picks in Round 7 and 8; however, were pretty damn good.  He snagged Damien Harris in 7 and Deebo Samuel in Round 8.  Harris is Rb #14 and Deebo is WR #2.  In Rounds 9 and 10 he went Ronald Jones and Mike Williams.  That’s #15 Wr Mike Williams and Rojo looks like he’ll be a factor in the Championship game.  Add in #4 Tight End Dalton Schultz who Kenny smartly won in FAAB for $22 way back in early October and you see how he’s constructed a winning team.  First few picks weren’t great, but his middle rounds he just nailed it.  And here we are.

 

Chase had the 6th pick in the draft and wind up in Division 3 where he faced Brad, Mustafa, and Joe.  He went Nick Chubb with the 6th overall pick and Chubb hasn’t disappointed as a Top 10 Running Back despite a slower start with Kareem Hunt’s early season snap percentage.  A couple of injuries for Kareem paved the way for Chubb to take over as the only “A” Running back against a stellar running blocking line in Cleveland.  His 2nd Round Pick Calvin Ridley unexpectedly stepped away from Football, 3rd Rounded George Kittle missed a big portion of the season due to injury, but he came back with a fiery passion, helping Chase end the season strong and jettisoning him into playoff and championship contention.  In Round 4 Chase made one of the best picks of the draft in Cooper Kupp.  I’ll always remember drafting Allen Robinson over Cooper Kupp this year.  Ouch.  He went Kyler Murray and then Raheem Mostert.  The rest of his draft wasn’t very special, but we all know Chase is one of the best managers in the league.  And this season he continued to display his skills of picking up players that have potential if certain scenarios arise.  It’s this probability analysis that makes Chase a great fantasy manager and why he has made it to his 4th Super Bowl.        

 

Super Bowl Matchups:

 

Chase will feature Kyler Murray in a big time NFC matchup against the red hot Dallas Cowboys.  He’ll have Nick Chubb on MNF against Division rival Pittsburgh, with both teams having only desperation chances of making the postseason.  Steelers are OPRK #26, setting Chubb up nicely in a game they could easily lead for most of the night.  He also has Rashad Penny.  I dropped Penny because he kept getting hurt again and again, but with Alex Collins getting injured they decided to give Penny a shot and of course he starts going freaking nuts.  He’s always been talented; he’s also always been hurt.  He’s been averaging 19.1 fantasy points a game the last 3 weeks and gets Detroit’s #31 OPRK defense, which just pisses me off. (Bitter Carson owner and Penny dropper).  He’ll also have #1 WR Cooper Kupp @ Baltimore who just got sliced and diced to the tune of 525 yards from Joe “Big Dick” Burrow with all three wideouts going off.  #3 TE George Kittle gets Houston’s #25 OPRK defense.  Look out for Amon-Ra St. Brown for Chase, who is in the middle of a breakout season in Detroit.  He’s averaging 18 fantasy points over the last 4 games, including 11-12 targets every game, at least 8 receptions every game and 4 touchdowns.  Fantasy Football is supposed to be fun and Amon-Ra St. Brown is fun. 

 

Kenny will feature #1 Qb Josh Allen versus #31 OPRK Atlanta, with Buffalo needing to keep winning in their efforts to claim the AFC East Title, since NE and them share the same record.  Allen has surpassed 30 fantasy points in 5 games this season including 2 games of over 40.  #6 Rb Zeke faces a tough Arizona Rush defense who held Jonathan Taylor touchdown-less last week.  #18 Josh Jacobs faces Indy defense who gave up 8 receptions to Chase Edmonds last week.  Ronald Jones gets the #32 OPRK Jets.  We’ll see if the Bucs try to feed Rojo’s confidence going down the stretch with Lenny Fournette nursing a hurt hamstring.  #2 Wr Deebo Samuel gets a decent matchup against Houston.  #4 TE Dalton Schultz is in that tight Arizona game, they’ve been solid against Tight Ends, only giving up the #2 OPRK worth to opposing tight ends.  Kenny will have some decisions to make at Running Back with 4 viable starters and at Wide Receiver depending on Mike Williams COVID status. 

 

Key Thinks To Look Out For:

  1. Jimmy Garoppolo’s status and how a Trey Lance start could impact Kittle and/or Deebo Samuel.
  2. Who Kenny chooses to start this week.
  3. Any COVID issues that might arise unexpectedly to the detriment of one or both of the teams.

 

Looking at the matchups I would say Chase is favored, but anything is possible in fantasy.  Can Kenny repeat as Champion and win his second title?  Or will Chase claim his 3rd Championship?  Should be a great matchup!

 

Bottom Bowl Notables:

 

12. Brad vs. 8. Trey. Winner gets 6 balls in next year’s lottery. Loser gets 5 balls.

11. Tommy vs. 10. Joe. Winner gets 4 balls. Loser gets 3 balls.

9. Mike vs. 7. Jen. Winner gets 2 balls.Loser gets 1 ball like the rest of the 6 playoff teams.

 

Best of Luck to Kenny and Chase and to all those striving to get more balls in the draft lottery of 2022. 

 

-Commish

BBY Dream Team League Draft Grades 2021

bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL, Rankings , , ,
  1. Tommy

CMC was correct.  AJ Brown was a great pickup at the end of the 2nd round.  Analysts I have read have expressed concern over Tennessee’s defense and believe Tannehill will be airing it out more this year.  Having a hyper talented #1 on the team is very nice especially if the analysts prediction comes to fruition.  Miles Sanders was an interesting pick to start the 3rd round.  I understand the need to grab a second running back in this league, but to take him over DeAndre Hopkins, Justin Jefferson, Keenan Allen.  Plus is Sanders the right pick?  Is he better than a Swift, Montgomery, Carson, Dobbins, or Henderson?  He’s been splitting carries with Bart Scott all preseason.  They drafted a hell of a third down back in Gainwell.  And they brought back Jordan Howard who wouldn’t give up his starting position to Sanders during his rookie campaign.  I definitely think the Eagles should give Sanders the ball more, but I don’t know if they actually do it.  Looking at the draft in hindsight now, you wind up with Sanders-Lockett in the 3rd and 4th round.  That could’ve been Hopkins/Allen/Jefferson paired with Davis/Gaskins/Hunt.  Lockett should be great and I think you got great value at the back of the 4th, but I do question the Sanders pick a bit.  He is on the same tier as the Dobbins/Montgomery/Carsons so I won’t knock down the grade harshly, but just interesting decision.  Ja’Marr Chase to start the 5th round.  I hope he gets it going.  He has looked awful in camp.  Can’t separate from defenders, drops.  It’s bad.  With any rookie wide receiver, going to be important that you stay patient.  Make sure not to drop him after a few weeks, right Trey?  Hehe.  Loved Brandon Auyik in the 6th round.  I think you can circle this pick as one that you’ll go back to at the end of the year and everyone else in the league is going to question why the hell they didn’t pick him when they had the chance.  Rodgers in the 7th is good pick.  He was ridiculous last year.  48 passing touchdowns and 5 INTs?  Are you kidding me?  That’s why he won MVP.  Can he repeat that efficiency?  Or at least get close?  Some regression is likely, but we’ll see.  Conner for depth in the 8th.  Goedert for starting Tight End.  Good value in the 10th and 11th with Nyheim Hines and Marvin Jones.  Hines might have earned the 3rd down back role in Indy despite JT’s late season emergence and Marlon Mack’s return.  Marvin Jones is looking good paired with new Qb Trevor Lawrence.  Loved Taysom Hill as the last pick in the draft.  Probably will never use him with Rodgers, but heck, he could start and why not?

Draft Grade: B+

  1. Joe

Dalvin Cook was correct.  Mahomes in the 2nd.  Look I love Mahomes, but I don’t like where you drafted him.  The next Qb didn’t go until the end of the 4th round.  You could’ve gotten Kyler Murray in the 5thround.  Last year Murray finished Qb#5 and scored 12.7 points less than Mahomes.  Was 12.7 points worth 3 rounds of difference?  AJ Brown, Keenan Allen, DeAndre Hopkins, Kittle.  I love Mahomes, I think he’s fun to watch, but just don’t like his draft position here.  When I drafted him last year it was at the end of the 3rd and even then it felt like I drafted him too early.  You snagged Justin Jefferson in the 3rd, pairing him with Dalvin Cook for a couple of stud Vikings.  I like JJ.  I hope he has a great year and doesn’t regress with a sophomore slump.  He’s fun to watch.  In the 4th you got Julio Jones.  See comment above on Tommy’s write up about the prospects of Tennessee throwing more this season, which could make this a really good pick.  In the 5th you took Gaskins, which I didn’t care for very much.  In preseason he was sharing time with Malcom Brown.  I think he wins the job, but I had Mike Davis, Kareem Hunt, and Chase Edmonds ranked higher than him this season.  In the 6th you went Robby Anderson.  I think in normal drafts this would be a really good pick, but in this one when you still had Auyik, Claypool, Jeudy, and Cooks available I actually don’t like the pick.  Darnold has chemistry with Robby, which is a good thing, but Robby and Darnold didn’t exactly tear it up back in New York.  I think Joe Brady will get more out of the duo than Adam Gase ever did, but I liked the other wideouts a bit better for this season.  Robert Tonyan in the 7th is something.  Prime Touchdown regression candidate at the tight end position.  11 Touchdowns was awesome, but does he repeat that success with Randall Cobb back, Dillon coming on strong in potential goal line situations.  I probably would’ve waited for a tight end until the very back of the draft after Kenny took Logan Thomas.  At this point you are chasing touchdowns, so doesn’t matter if it’s Tonyan or Gerald Everette (who went undrafted) if you are chasing touchdowns.  Passed on some valuable depth pieces in this round for Tonyan, so need him to repeat his success from last year.  Might be a big ask.  Antonio Brown in the 8th was okay.  I really liked Jamaal Williams pick in the 9th.  There is a reason he carved out so much usage from Aaron Jones workload the past couple seasons and why he’ll do the same for the Lions.  Coaches love the guy.  He blocks well, runs efficiently.  If Swift gets injured or misses any time you should start Williams with confidence.  You took a pair of Cowboys at 10 and 11 in Michael Gallup and Tony Pollard.  If Cooper or Zeke gets injured you have a great player all of a sudden.  Gallup will hold some stand alone value, but it’s going to be unpredictable (like Antonio Brown).  -2 points for drafting Tebow.

Draft Grade: C+. Team will compete with Mahomes-Dalvin-JJ and JJ, but will need to manage the team well to have a shot at the playoffs and beyond.

  1. Mike

Mike I think you might have done it again.  I think Henry regresses a bit this year due to Tennessee’s defense being poo poo.  Oh Mike… I hope I’m wrong and he’s a beast like he was for me last season.  I would’ve gone Kamara here because he’s probably going to get 25 touches per game.  Henry doesn’t play 3rd downs or in the hurry up offenses.  DK Metcalf is a monster, I don’t blame you for drafting him in the 2nd. I personally think Hopkins and AJ Brown were better picks, but what do I know?  DK was 7th best WR last year, but he did have a few dud weeks with four games under 9 points including Weeks 15 and 16.  But those abs… D’Andre Swift in the 3rd.  I don’t have a problem going second running back.  I don’t know how I feel about Swift.  I just know I like Jamaal Williams a lot this year as a good backup.  Swift could bust out, he’s talented, but he also has lingering groin issues that pop their ugly head from time to time.  In Round 4 got great value in Adam Thielen.   Strong Wr #2 for you.  In the 5th you went Chase Edmonds which I like.  I think the Cardinals are going to be good this year.  I do think James Conner will get work, but I like Edmonds in the passing game.  I liked Mike Davis and Kareem Hunt better here, but Edmonds should be fine.  6thRound Javonte Williams.  I like it.  Gordon is supposedly still starter for right now.  He was able to fight off Philip Lindsay, but can he fight off a fresh rookie with some explosiveness?  We shall see.  Russel Wilson in the 7th is a great pick.  I love stacks.  Wilson to Metcalf will give you 10+ point plays, which makes fantasy so much more fun.  That is the reason we play right?  Right?  In the 8th round you took my beloved Will Fuller. He’s suspended for Week 1, and then you can use him until he gets injured.  I think he’ll do well this season, but you have to pick the correct weeks to deploy his talents.  In the 9th and 10th you took a pair of Patriots.  Jonnu Smith and Jakobi Meyers.  I like the latter pick better.  Smith and Henry are going to be inconsistent I believe.  And I’m not sure which one is better.  Lindsay in the 11th was meh and I liked Washington D/ST in the 12th.  That D Line will give Qb’s nightmares before they even take the field.  I liked the flier pick of Marlon Mack in the later rounds.

Draft Grade: B.  It’s one of those situations where I would’ve chosen different people at almost every pick you made, but almost every pick you made was in the same tiers as the guys I would’ve picked, so I can’t knock you too hard, but also I don’t like your team very much.  Weird.

  1. Kenny

The Champion!  Kenny went with ZEKE.  I like Zeke for a bounce back year this year, but I don’t have him ranked higher than Kamara.  Either way I’m fine with the pick.  In the second round you went Josh Jacobs and I hate it.  I absolutely hate this pick.  Scored 13.3 or less in 9 games last season.  They added Kenyan Drake.  He doesn’t catch the ball.  Doesn’t do hurry up offense or 3rd downs.  But he did get 18 carries inside the 5 yard line last year.  So basically you are banking on him repeating his 12 touchdown year.  I had basically all the running backs that went after him in the 3rd round ranked higher than him and you drafted him over DeAndre Hopkins, Keenan Allen, AJ Brown, George Kittle, Justin Jefferson.  Blah.  In the 3rd round you “righted the ship” drafting DeAndre Hopkins.  Getting Hopkins in the 3rd is a felony and everyone responsible should be held accountable.  Phenomenal Pick.  Josh Allen in the 4th.  I’m okay with the pick.  I like Allen, if he can build on the season he has last year then he will be in MVP discussion.  Chris Godwin in the 5th was another stellar pickup.  Creating a Allen-Zeke-Jacobs-Hopkins-Godwin core that will make you compete.  I like Logan Thomas as a consistent Tight End scorer this season.  In the 7th you took Damien Harris.  With Zeke-Jacobs-Harris I have to ask if you just have something against 3rd down running backs?  Something about seeing the big guys slam into lineman for 2-4 yards just do it for you?  If you are looking for a team name you can try “Hands Free Service”.  In Round 8 you took Deebo Samuel.  I was high on Deebo this offseason then when he pulled up with a glute injury I dropped him a bit.  He’s got lots of potential.  Loved Rojo and Mike Williams for some depth pieces.  Could provide flex value and if injuries shake out a certain way can be big time providers.  Butker!  Devontae Booker might start Week 1 if Saquon isn’t a full go.  Really liked your late rounds.

Draft Grade: A.  Didn’t care for Jacobs pick, but overall a very good job.

  1. Mustafa

KAMARA.  Can’t believe these idiots let Kamara drop to you.  Nailed it.  In the 2nd round you went Waller, which is a great pick.  Waller is a target vacuum.  People don’t realize how much of a cheat code it is to have a Top Tight End.  Last Year Kelce was a Top 5 Rb in my lineup in a spot where most people are chasing 6 points.  Waller could finish TE#1 this year and I wouldn’t be surprised.  The offense funnels to him.  In the 3rdyou went Keenan Allen who has caught 102-97-104-100 balls the last 4 years.  Averaging a hyper consistent 101 catches per year.  That’s typically a good thing in an half ppr league folks.  In the 4th round Moose took Diontae Johnson, which was interesting.  I had Julio, Lockett, Thielen ranked a little higher.   I think Johnson is very talented and will have some strong weeks, but I worry about consistency.  He’s explosive, so maybe Moose was going for some dynamite to go with the Keenan Allen rock.  In Round 5 Moose went Mike Davis. It’s a solid pick.  Davis is the #1 for the Falcons.  He played really well in CMC’s absence last year.  It’s strange to see a #1 Rb who appears to be in line for a workhorse type role taking over for Gurley who finished 25th last year after scoring 9 touchdowns.  In Round 6 Moose went Odell.  Not a bad flex.  In Round 7 he took Michael Thomas for an IR stash.  In Round 8 he went Jaylen Waddle for Miami.  It’ll be interesting to see how Miami’s offense shakes out this year.  Watching Tua’s progression as well as how the targets wind up going with Fuller, Waddle, Parker, and Gesicki.  In Round 9 Moose went Gus Edwards.  In the 10thhe took Ryan Tannehill, who could ball out this year with the addition of Julio Jones.  Loved Hardman in the 12th.  Who doesn’t love a Hardman.

Draft Grade: B+.  I don’t feel like this is the normal Moose team.  Some boring Running backs like Davis, Gus, James White.  Waller-Odell-Johnson is more like it.

  1. Chase

Nick Chubb in the 1st.  We disagree here.  If I laid out all the Rb’s that went after Chubb I would probably have ranked Chubb middle of the pack after Aaron Jones, Austin Ekeler, Antonio Gipson, Najee Harris, and before Johnathan Taylor, Mixon, Barkley, & Clyde.  Chubb is 1A in Cleveland and Cleveland does look to be very good again this year.  Chubb doesn’t get many catches at all.  And he doesn’t get overutilized either.  He got 10-23 touches every game last year, but no more.  If they are making another post season run they’ll probably strive to keep him fresh.  It’s a situation where his floor isn’t bad, but his ceiling is capped.  I understand given the way this league drafts that you had to make a choice at Rb.  You made your choice, now we’ll see how it turns out.  I’m usually wrong on these grades, so no reason to believe I’m not wrong again this year.  I LOVE Calvin Ridley in the 2nd.  I was very high on Ridley and you got him at the just right spot.  Going to be a target machine.  I like Kittle in the 3rd.  Tight End is such a difference maker if you have a top scorer.  Kittle has the potential.  He is oft-injured because of how aggressive he plays.  When Kelce catches the ball, he goes down (in Marvin-Harrison fashion), so that he can live to play another down.  When Kittle catches the ball, he goes looking for the next guy to hit down the field.  A true gritty old-school footballer who unfortunately winds up injured as a result of that.  If he can stay healthy for an entire season though, would be a tremendous value.  Cooper Kupp in the 4th round was solid.  Could easily see him getting over 90 catches this year and become a favorite of Matthew Stafford.  In Round 5 you took Kyler Murray, which surprised me a bit.  Chase going Rb, Wr, TE, Wr, Qb to start the draft was not what I expected.  Kyler is primed to have another great year.  I’m high on the Cardinals this year.  (Despite me only getting their kicker) In the 6th you took your second Rb in Raheem Mostert.  If he’s healthy and starting he is a force and we all know his big play capability.  Round 7 you took Chase Claypool who I really like.  He’s a big baller and I think he’s going to get his this season.  In Round 8 you took Michael Carter.  Rookie should start for the Jets, but he may take awhile to get going (similar to Antonio Gipson last year).  In Round 9 I liked the Marquez Callaway pick.  #1 Wideout and people are sleeping on Jameis/Taysom.  Rest of the draft was solid.

Draft Grade: B+.  Didn’t seem like a normal Chase draft, but I liked it.

  1. Jen/Mel.

Austin Ekeler in the first.  I love Ekeler.  He’s got an improved Offensive Line, he’s elusive.  I hope he can hold up this season.  Last year he had a very serious hamstring injury.  Hoping he’s 100% healthy and electric like he should be.  Some analysts have him ranked as high as #5 Rb.  We’ll see.  Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the second.  I understand snagging running backs in this league when you can.  CEH has a minor ankle strain, but bigger than that, he needs to win over his own backfield.  Chiefs could turn true running back by committee with Darrel Williams and Jerick McKinnon.  All 3 of their backs strengths are pass catching.  In Round 3 you went Terry McLaurin which is a safe Wr #1.  He should enjoy having Ryan Fitzmagic at the helm.  Amari Cooper in the 4th is a good value.  Cooper is the #1 Wideout on a high volume offense.  If Dak can return to early season form from a year ago and both him and Cooper stay healthy, they can combine for big things this season.  Lamar Jackson in the 5th gets you a dual threat Qb, which is a prized possession in this league.  We are seeing a transition of mobile Qb’s sliding up the fantasy rankings every year.  Noah Fant at Tight End.  I like Noah Fant, I think he has a lot of potential, we’ll see what he does this season.  Brandin Cooks is a good value in the 7th round.  Tyrod Taylor is starting Qb, Will Fuller is gone. Everybody is looking the other way when it comes to the Texans and it could be a hidden cache for value this fantasy season.  Jen built depth pieces over the next few picks with Leonard Fournette, Jarvis Landry, and Mike Gesicki.

Draft Grade: B.  Overall a decent team that will compete.  Love the trio of LSU players on the squad.

  1. JD

JD you’ve had some terrible luck with draft locations over the years.  10, 7, 7, 8, 11, and now 8 again.  Barkley?!?  I wasn’t this thigh on him.  Hehe.  I think they are going to start him off slow, but by end of the year he’ll be back to Top Rb form.  It might be painful during the first month or so of the season though, so I wouldn’t have gone this route, but I get the potential.  Getting Stefon Diggs at 16th overall was a great pickup.  Diggs could be Top wideout this year if his connection with Allen continues to get better.  Diggs might be the best route runner in the league.  CeeDee Lamb in the 3rd.  I’m high on CeeDee this year.  It probably would’ve been better to snag a Rb here since there were so many wideouts in this area to choose from, but CeeDee has tremendous potential.  Slot wide receiver that is Julio-esque on a high scoring offense?  That’s a good recipe right there.  Etienne in the 4th.  This one was a bit of a reach for me.  We don’t know what the Jags offense is going to look like.  They have some pieces to compete, but James Robinson and Carlos Hyde are both there.  I think Etienne will be more 3rd down back and gadget player then true Rb, making this pick a little risky.  I would’ve snagged another great wideout in this round or chosen a different running back like Edmonds or Mike Davis.  Dak in the 5th to stack with CeeDee.  Now that could be fun to watch.  I liked the Tee Higgins and Jerry Jeudy picks in the next two rounds.  Getting some young and talented wideouts.  I was eyeing Jeudy in the 7th when you snagged him from me.   Melvin Gordon in the 8th was good value.  I liked Tyler Higbee in the 9th as well.

Draft Grade: C.  This team has a lot of potential, but they really need to get fully healthy.  I see a lot of Questionable designations in your future.  Running Backs, both starters and depth appear lacking significantly.

  1. Brad

I was targeting Davante Adams, Travis Kelce or Tyreek Hill here.  I was fully prepared to snag whichever one fell to me.  Then there were 8 straight Running Backs taken.  Then after doing some arithmetic I realized if I didn’t take a Rb now, then I would be left with just injured CEH or no Rbs after the turn.  I had to sacrifice Adams and Kelce to secure a Rb, knowing I could get a top Wr in the 2nd.  I chose Aaron Jones.  He’s finished Top 5 Fantasy Rb in back to back seasons despite Jamaal Williams stealing a large percentage of the backfield market share.  Insert AJ Dillon and I don’t see the percentage of carries going down.  Jones is the superior pass-catching back, which makes him more valuable in my opinion.  In the 2nd after the Kelce’s and Adam’s and slew of Rb’s were taken I was left with Tyreek Hill.  Some analysts have Tyreek ranked as high as #3 Overall given the targets vacated by the departure of Sammy Watkins.  There might be some Touchdown regression from his 15 from a year ago, but we all know the Cheetah can add some Big Play Bonus points this season.  Jones-Hill is a solid Rb-Wr combo to start the draft.  Chris Carson in the 3rd is a boring pick.  Picking Carson over Darrell Henderson, David Montgomery, and JK Dobbins might come back to haunt Brad.  Henderson is #1 on the Rams, Montgomery finished Rb#4 last year and Dobbins was Brad’s guy last year.  Carson has been solid, but just a boring, safe pick for Rb#2.  Speaking of boring safe picks, Brad gets Allen Robinson in the 4th for his 2nd Wr.  This gives a solid core of Jones-Carson-Hill-Robinson.  Little explosion, decent floor.  Not bad.  In the 5th Brad chose Browns 1B Rb Kareem Hunt.  The most talented backup Rb in the league.  If Chubb gets injured Hunt turns into a Top 10 Rb, if Chubb stays healthy, Brad has a decent Rb3/Flex player.  Flexcuff I believe is the term.  I don’t think anyone would have a problem with Kyle Pitts in the 6th round.  Rookie Tight Ends typically struggle in their first year, but we know Pitts was a monster at Florida.  Tyler Boyd in the 7th was another boring pick.  He will probably be the least explosive, but most consistent Wideout for the Bengals this season.  Looking forward to those 5 catches for 60 yards games in my flex spot on occasion.  AJ Dillon in the 8th round.  At worst he’s a handcuff to Aaron Jones, at best he is another Flexcuff.  He’s a big dude, so we’ll see what happens.  More boring picks with Corey Davis and Kenyan Drake on new teams.  Matt Stafford at Qb.  Went safe with Baltimore D/ST.

Draft Grade: A.  Solid team. Don’t see a weakness.

  1. Katon

Travis Kelce.  Yes 100% yes.  From a value based drafting standpoint this was the correct decision.  In the 2nd you were able to snag Joe Mixon as your Rb #1.  Everyone is saying this is the year.  Maybe it actually will be with Gio Bernard gone?  In the 3rd round you took David Montgomery as your Rb2.  I don’t hate it.  Mike Evans in the 4th as your first wideout isn’t bad.  When Tom Brady gets inside the Red Zone he’s looking for Evans.  Their connection on fades last year was crazy.  James Robinson in the 5th was okay.  Little risky and maybe too early in my opinion.  They have Etienne and Carlos Hyde, so I don’t know if Robinson will be a fraction of what he did last year.  But we’ll see.  JuJu in the 6th was an okay choice.  He’s in the slot which typically helps with floors due to it being half ppr.  But with Johnson and Claypool his ceiling is pretty capped.  Zach Moss in the 7th could be a good value.  Starting Running Back in Round 7 sounds legit, but we’ll see how he does this year.  I really like Laviska Shenault in the 8th.  Some analysts have compared him to a young Brandon Marshall.   In Rounds 9 and 10 you snagged Bucs stack of Tom Brady and TB D/ST. Way too early for a defense, but the Brady-Evans stack is pretty cool.  Snagged some decent backups.

Draft Grade: B+.  This is a Katon team.

  1. Scotty

Davante Adams.  Yes 100% yes.  What a value to have the best wide receiver in the league fall in your lap at the 11th pick, with 3+ rb’s left, so you knew you would be able to snag a good one after the turn.  Najee Harris is due for a bazillion carries this season, so between Adams and Najee you probably have the best combination in the entire league when it comes to Rb-Wr to start the draft.  Phenomenal.  Darrell Henderson in the 3rd was a great pick.  Rams with Stafford, solid defense, Sean McVay, the sky is the limit if he can stay healthy this season.  Mark Andrews in the 4th was okay.  I’m not so high on him, but with all the injuries to the Ravens wide receivers, I don’t judge you for this pick.  He could start off the season on fire.  DJ Moore was a good value in Round 5.  Justin Herbert in Round 6 was okay.  I think the team will be more balanced this year, but he flashed his talents for the world to see last year during his OROY.  I didn’t care for your picks in Rounds 7, 8, 9 and 10 with Trey Sermon, DJ Chark, David Johnson and Marquise Brown.  Sermon was a decent pick, but I’m not high on Chark with Shenault getting better, and Marvin Jones coming on strong.   I loved the Michael Pittman pick in Round 11 and I think he will have a much better season than Chark or Brown.  Rams D/ST was solid.

Draft Grade: A-.  Later rounds were bleh, but hell of a core.  Rb Depth is a problem.   (Which is normal in this league)

  1. Trey

Trey had options at the 12/13 turn.  He could’ve gone Hill-Diggs, Rb-Wr, but knowing the Wr talent that falls to the back of the 3rd/4th he went Rb-Rb-Wr-Rb getting a trio of Sophomore Studs in Johnathan Taylor, Antonio Gipson and JK Dobbins.  Best Rb trio in the league?  Bob Trees was a good pick as a Wr#1.  He’s consistent, he’s solid, Stafford is going to love him.  In Rounds 5 and 6 it made out like poetry.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  I love the TJ Hockensen pick.  I think Goff is going to target him A LOT this season.  I was hoping he would fall back to me, but you snagged him.  Kenny Golladay was.. blah.  I just don’t see it.  Golladay is a talent, but he’s an entitled talent on a Giants team with Daniel Jones at Qb, with the presence of Sterling Shepherd, Darius Slayton, Evan Engram, Kyle Rudolph and rookie Kadarius Toney.  That’s a lot of mouths to feed on a potentially really bad team.  I didn’t care for the Sutton or Devonta Smith picks in Rounds 7 and 8 either.  Now in Rounds 9/10 I really liked the Jalen Hurts-Darnell Mooney picks.  Mooney is going to be a better than the previous three wideouts you chose I believe.  Hurts, as long as the Watson rumors get squashed and he truly starts for the Eagles would be a good value.  Dual threat Qb’s tend to have better floors.  Gage and Tua was a similar strategy the next round.  Seems like after drafting the 3 Rb’s in your first 4 picks you might have panic bought up on crappy wideouts instead of building depth at Rb.

Draft Grade: B.  Should be a fun, young team to watch, but picking which wide receivers to start each week is going to be a nightmare for you.

Draft Grades In Order:

  1. Kenny- A
  2. Brad- A
  3. Scotty- A-
  4. Katon- B+
  5. Tommy B+
  6. Mustafa B+
  7. Chase B+
  8. Trey- B
  9. Jen/Mel- B
  10. Mike- B
  11. Joe- C+
  12. JD- C

*Remember, my grades are never correct.  Also, with the divisions set the way they are anything can happen. Best of Luck this season!

BBY 2020: Super Bowl 12 Preview

bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, Rankings , ,

BBY 2020 Super Bowl 12 Preview      

3. Mike (Regular Season: 8-5, Playoffs 2-0) vs. 1. Kenny (Regular Season: 9-4, Playoffs 1-0)

Preview: The last Super Bowl to feature two teams that had not won a title was 2017 when Jen faced Trey in Super Bowl 9.  This is Mike’s second Super Bowl appearance, but first since 2009 in Super Bowl I.  This is Kenny’s first Super Bowl appearance.

How They Got Here:

Kenny- 6th Pick.  Dalvin Cook fell to Kenny with contract and injury concerns.  5 Running Backs were drafted ahead of him and yet entering the Super Bowl week Dalvin Cook is the #1 Fantasy Running Back.  In the 2ndRound he was fortunate to have Tyreek Hill fall to him after Joe took Mike (hehe) Evans before him.  That would be #1 Fantasy Wide Receiver Tyreek Hill.  In the next two rounds Kenny took veteran running backs on different teams in 22. Todd Gurley and 17. Melvin Gordon III.  These picks weren’t sexy, but Melvin Gordon scored 5 touchdowns against me in our three matchups this season and I hate him for it.  He then took #6 DK Metcalf in Round 5 and #5 Stefon Diggs in Round 6.  For those keeping track: #1 Rb, #1Wr, #22 Rb, #17 Rb, #6 Wr, #5 Wr.  The rest of his draft sucked, but that didn’t matter.  You go 6/6 in your first six rounds and you’re going to compete.  Adding Rookie Phenom #8 Qb Justin Herbert for $21 was a superb move for a team that seemed to be a Qb away from making a run at this thing.  Kenny wind up scoring 1676.4 regular season points on his way to $200 and a Points Leader winner.  

Mike- 1st Pick.  Mike is in the Super Bowl despite not having his #1 Overall Pick Christian McCaffrey in all but three games this season.  Mike smartly bid $63 for Mike Davis once McCaffrey went down.  Davis has filled in admirably for CMC, but he’s #15 Running Back.  At the 2nd/3rd turn Mike went George Kittle and David Johnson.  Kittle has been effective when playing, but he too was injured, missing 9 games this season.  He averages 14.3 when he actually plays.  #27 Rb David Johnson also missed 5 games due to injury.  In the 4th Round Mike selected #14 AJ Brown who missed 3 games earlier in the season.  In Round 5 Mike busted with TY Hilton.  Hilton scored single digits for the first 11 weeks of the fantasy season.  In the 6thround Mike took Deebo Samuel, who you guessed it… missed 6 games due to injury.  Then in the 7th round Mike struck gold with #2 Qb Kyler Murray.  Mike’s greatest pick though came in Round 11.  He took Justin Jefferson out of LSU.  The rookie is Wide Receiver #7.  Incredible value in Round 11.  The rest was crap.  A saavy move for Mike was picking up Corey Davis for $0 from Free Agency.  He somehow is the #20 Wide Receiver. 

Summary: Kenny was healthy and crushed his first 6 rounds.  Mike was extremely injury riddled this season, but was fortunate to have BY FAR the lowest Points Against (1298.8) the next closest team was Katon with 1407.2.  A difference of 108.4 points.  Would you rather by lucky or good?  

With all that said… none of it matters.  All that matters is what happens in Week 16.

Matchups:

Mike- Mike has #2 Kyler Murray versus San Francisco on Saturday after Christmas.  He last faced San Fran all the way back in Week 1 to the tune of 26.3 fantasy points including 91 rushing yards.  #27 David Johnson faces #17 OPRK Cincinnati with Duke Johnson out of the contest.  This bodes well for DJ from a volume standpoint, which is the reason why he was drafted at the beginning of the third round to begin with.  #15 Mike Davis faces #5 OPRK against that NASTY Washington defensive line.  I’m not sure how effective he’ll be in what might be a defensive affair.  #12 AJ Brown and #20 Corey Davis is against a solid Green Bay secondary on Sunday Night Football.  Star Rookie #7 Wide Receiver Justin Jefferson faces a tough Saints defense in the Dome on Christmas Day.  George Kittle has been activated from IR in time to face an Arizona defense that has been racking up sacks lately.  We’ll have to see if Kittle if Full Go or if he is on a snap count.  As of right now Mike has Indy D/ST versus Pittsburgh instead of Tampa Bay versus a Detroit offense who will have a play caller that hasn’t called plays in forever because their coaching staff got hammered with Covid procedures this week.  Mike has darling #1 Kicker Younghoe Koo versus Kansas City.  Kickers like Koo make fantasy fun.  

Kenny- Kenny has #8 Justin Herbert versus Denver.  In Week 8 Herbert scored 21.1 throwing for 278 yards and 3 touchdowns with a couple interceptions.  #1 Rb Dalvin Cook has a tough matchup against a stout Saints defensive line.  But he’s virtually matchup proof as evident from his 27.4 against Chicago last week to spank Brad’s ass back to 1 Ball Land.  #17 Melvin Gordon faces LAC.  He only managed 7.7 fantasy points in their first outing against the Chargers.  #1 Tyreek Hill gets 32nd ranked Atlanta OPRK.  A virtual smash spot yet Kenny will have to watch as Hill gets the Questionable designation.  Hill faces the worst defense guarding receivers and Kenny’s Wide Receiver #2/3 #6 DK Metcalf faces the best defense at guarding receivers.  LA Rams with #1 OPRK.  Metcalf had BY FAR his worst game of the season going up against Jalen Ramsey and the Rams secondary for a measily 3.8 fantasy points.  We’ll see if he gets shut down again or if he gets revenge for the first outing.  At tight end, Kenny’s only weakness, he has either #18 Dallas Goedert or #17 Tyler Higbee.  Goedert gets Dallas who he scored 2 fantasy points against in Week 8 and Higbee gets Seattle who he scored 7.5 against in Week 10.  Kenny is flipping a coin and hoping one of them catches a TD in this one.  #5 Stefon Diggs Monday Night Football matchup at New England isn’t as daunting given their top Corner Stephon Gilmore landed on IR and NE is out of the playoff hunt.  #3 Dolphins D/ST against LV or #4  Rams D/ST against Russel Wilson and Seattle.  Right now Kenny has Dolphins in his lineup against a Las Vegas team that has nothing to lose as they are out of the playoff hunt.  Kenny has old Mr. Reliable #6 Kicker Justin Tucker.  

Final Thoughts:

This was shaping up to be a David vs. Goliath matchup.  Kenny looks unstoppable scoring 150.3 during the bye week and 142.6 in the Final Four.  Mike had scored 106.8 in Round 1, but then exploded in Round 2 with 151.0 points.  Kenny has the better team.  We know this.  But in Fantasy it’s all about strategy and luck.  Anybody can start the right person or the wrong person.  Last year I started the wrong Wide Receiver after losing my top Rb and top Wr and I lost by 1 point.  Whoever wins will win their first title, will win cash, and have the trophy shipped to them by Moose.  I don’t know who will win, but I’m sure we are in for a fun Super Bowl, that’s stretches over Christmas Day game, Saturday games, Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football.  Best of luck to both of you.  May the odds be ever in your favor. 

Bottom Bowl:

Joe vs. Moose:

Winner gets 6 balls, Loser gets 5 balls.  Congrats guys you already “won”

JD vs. Chase

Winner gets 4 balls, Loser gets 3 balls.  Not too shabby.

Scotty vs. Tommy

Winner gets 2 balls, Loser gets 1 ball and the shame of being the worst fantasy player this season.  Come on Scotty, don’t take my high draft grade all the way down man.  My ego can’t take it.  

Thank you all for a wonderful season everyone.  God Bless and I look forward to the draft lottery next season!  Now let’s enjoy Mike and Kenny in Super Bowl 12!

BBY 2020: Round 2 Playoffs

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BBY Dream Team League 2020 Playoffs: Round 2

Quick Recap:

4. Brad defeated 5. Katon in a shootout 160-142.5 and 3. Mike defeated 6. Jen 106.8-82.2.  Bracket still appears to be lopsided setting up a potential David vs. Goliath Super Bowl.  Kenny, Katon, and Brad combined to score 452.8 (average of 150.9) as opposed to Jen, Mike, and Trey combining to score 272.6 (average of 90.9).  Of course anyone can beat anyone any given week.    

Final Four Resume’s:

Kenny: 0-1 in Final Four matchups

Brad: 5-2 in Final Four matchups

Mike: 1-2 in Final Four matchups

Trey: 1-1 in Final Four matchups

Round 2:

Round 2 brings us a beautifully symmetrical bracket.  1-2-3-4 seeds advanced for BBY Supremacy.  Also, the four remaining teams represent the contiguous United States.  Mike represents the North in North Dakota, Brad the West in California, Trey the East in South Carolina, and Kenny the South in Louisiana.  It’s kind of like Game of Thrones.   Mike is the Starks representing the North.  Which of course would make his sigil a Dire Wolf.  Kenny being from the South would make him the Lannister’s who controlled King’s Landing for most of the show.  His sigil would be a Golden Lion, which also equates with all those Points he scored.  Trey would be House Baratheon whose house traditionally rules the Stormlands on the Eastern coast of Westeros and who’s sigil is a Mighty Stag.  And Brad would be House Greyjoy because this fantasy group’s perception of a small surgery that he had on a dilated vein running from his kidney to my left testicle is the equivalent of having his dick chopped off like Theon Greyjoy.  I digress.  

4. Brad vs. 1. Kenny

Preview: Kenny beat Brad twice in the regular season, edged out Brad for Points Winner, and is more handsome.  Brad has the #1 Quarterback, #2 Running Back and #1 Tight End.  Kenny has #1 Running Back, #1 Wide Receiver, AND the #3 Wide Receiver, AND the #4 Wide Receiver, and #2 Defense.  

Matchup Notables:  Brad’s #1 Patrick Mahomes and #1 Travis Kelce (along with Kenny’s #1 Tyreek Hill) face a tough Saints Defense.  This game is being played in the SuperDome where Tyreek Hill may be able to crack the sound barrier on a deep route.  Brad’s #2 Derrick Henry faces OPRK 31st Detroit, setting up an on-paper smash spot.  Kenny’s trio of wideouts have tough(er) matchups in #1 Tyreek Hill vs. #8 OPRK New Orleans, #3 DK Metcalf vs. #4 OPRK Washington, and #4 Stefon Diggs vs. #10 OPRK Denver.  #1 Rb Dalvin Cook hasn’t done great against #8 OPRK Chicago’s defense.  But Kenny has a Diamond in the Rough in #2 D/ST LA Rams versus #32 OPRK the hapless New York Jets.  That is going to be a slaughter and Kenny could easily get north of 20 points there. 

Final Thoughts: Brad would need to have a lot of fortunate chain of events to take place to defeat the Top Seed in the playoffs.  

3. Mike vs. 2. Trey

Preview: Trey defeated Mike 113.4 to 109.7 in Week 10.  This is their first playoff matchup.  Trey has #4 and #8 Running Backs.  Mike has #2 Quarterback and #8 Wide Receiver.  

Matchup Notables: Mike has #15 Rb Mike Davis vs. #29th OPRK GB Packers on Saturday, and his Titans Stack of #13 AJ Brown and #25 Corey Davis face #27th OPRK Detroit Lions.  Trey has all matchups which feature middle of the pack OPRK’s with the exception of TY Hilton who faces #24 OPRK Houston Texans.  TY has been on a tear the last 3 weeks averaging 21.1 points per game.  

Final Thoughts:  This matchup could go either way.  Interesting note to add is Mike’s #2 Qb Kyler Murray facing Rookie Jalen Hurts in a game against one another.  Who wins between Sophomore and Rookie?  

Bottom Bowl:

Game 1: Moose vs. Chase: 

Super Bowl 10 Rematch sets friends against one another.  Winner is guaranteed 5-6 balls in Game 1 of Round 3. Loser is guaranteed 3-4 balls in Game 2 of Round 3.

Game 2: Joe vs. Tommy

Friends become enemies.  Enemies become friends.  This is the most important and volatile game in the Bottom Bowl.  Game 2 of Round 2.  The winner is guaranteed 5 or 6 balls in Game 1 of Round 3.  The loser; however, shoots down to Game 3 of Round 3 and can either win 2 balls or only have 1 ball like the playoff teams.  Since it’s so volatile it would be a perfect time for a… kicker bowl?

Game 3: JD vs. Scotty

Winner moves on to Game 2 of Round 2 and is guaranteed 3 or 4 balls.  Loser moves on to Game 3 of Round 3 and will either win 2 balls or only get 1 ball.  

Best of Luck Everyone!  I certainly hope Justin Herbert doesn’t go to Overtime and instead of finishing with 19.7 fantasy points hit a bomb and go over 300 yards and then rush for a game winning touchdown in overtime to give Kenny a 30.8 point head start against me this week!    

BBY 2020 Playoffs Round 1 Preview

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Playoff Preview Round 1

Welcome to the Playoff Preview for the 2020 Playoffs of the 12th year of the Best Buy Dream Team League.  Couple more prepositions and that sentence would have gotten really annoying.   First analysis of the bracket shows that it is a bit lopsided.  1. Kenny (Points For: 1676.4) will play the winner of 4. Brad (Points For: 1637.2) and 5. Katon (Points For: 1506.3).  The average Points For on this side of the bracket is 1606.6.  On the other side we have 2. Trey (Points For: 1504.8) will play the winner of 3. Mike (Points For: 1508.3) vs. 6. Jen (Points For: 1282.2).  The average Points For on this side of the bracket is 1431.8.  Of course, in the Fantasy Playoffs it doesn’t matter how you got there.  It matters that you got in.  Because if you got in then you have a shot.  A shot… at winning a Championship.  Only two teams out of the six have won Super Bowls before (Trey: 2017, Brad: 2009, 2011).  Five teams have made it to Super Bowls before (Jen lost to Trey in 2017, Katon lost to Chase in 2016, and Mike lost to Brad in 2009).  Then there is Kenny.  Kenny has never made it to a Super Bowl, but he comes into the bracket as the #1 Seed and won the Points Leader Title for 2020, winning him some cash in the process.  ($180).  Of course, I would be remiss to not mention how crazy of a season it’s been.  Dealing with suspended games, players unexpectedly going on COVID Reserve lists, on top of another injury riddled season.  It has been challenging to make the right calls and it’s another reminder of how little we control in fantasy.  We control a lot, but luck and circumstance control a lot too.  Best of Luck to the four playoffs teams squaring off this week.  May the odds be ever in your favor.  

Byes: 1. Kenny, 2. Trey

Playoff Resumes’:

Kenny: Appearances: 3, Record: 1-3, SB Appearances: 0, SB Wins: 0

Trey: Appearances: 4, Record: 4-3, SB Appearances: 1, SB Wins: 1 (2017)

3. Mike (8-5) vs. 6. Jen (7-6)

Playoff Resumes’:

Mike: Appearances: 3, Record: 2-3, SB Appearances: 1, SB Wins: 0

Jen: Appearances: 2, Record: 1-2, SB Appearances: 1, SB Wins: 0

Preview: The winner of Mike and Jen will go on to face the 2 Seed Trey.  These two have not met head-to-head in the playoffs previously.

X Factor Players: 

Mike’s x factor player: Christian McCaffrey.  Run CMC was out for most of the 2020 campaign dealing with a high ankle sprain, then when he returns, he injured his shoulder/ribs.  In the three contests he participated in he averaged 27.3 points per game.  He is looking good to be active in this one to the detriment of Jen’s playoff hopes.   

Jen’s x factor player: #6 DeAndre Hopkins.  D-Hop has struggled lately as much of the Cardinals offense has struggled.  In the last three weeks Hopkins has averaged 10.3 points per game.  For the season he averages 15.6 points per game, but he hasn’t been consistent.  He has scored over 20+ points in 5 contests and less than 10 points in 5 contests.  So which Hopkins will show up for Jen?  To advance she needs the 20+, which may be a difficult ask given Hopkins potential shadow coverage from lockdown corner James Bradberry on an underrated Giants Defense.  

Matchup Notables:

Mike- #16 AJ Brown faces a very beatable Jacksonville secondary ranked 30th in OPRK.  He was out the first time the Titans played the Jags and should post solid numbers in this game, which has a weird look of a shootout to it.  #4 Justin Jefferson is at Tampa Bay who gave up 269 receiving yards to Tyreek Hill a couple of weeks ago.  Tampa is coming off of a bye and sometimes teams can be a bit unpredictable following a bye week.  Some come out and look great, others come out and get destroyed.  Will be something to watch.

Jen- #6 Deshaun Watson plays @ Chicago.  Chicago is beatable in the secondary, but they have their moments.  They sit OPRK 9th and have been tough for opposing Quarterbacks; however, in the past two weeks they have given up almost 300 yards passing per game and 7 passing touchdowns.  On Sunday the current weather projection shows a high in Chicago of 32 degrees with a low of 21 degrees.     

Brad’s Final Thoughts:

Looking at the matchups Jen’s chances are slim.  It would be a huge upset for Jen to take out Mike and advance to the semifinals against Trey.  Of course, Mike had some favorable matchups in Week 5 too.  Jen defeated Mike 148.3 to 103.3 back then.  Who wins this one?

4. Brad (8-5) vs. 5. Katon (7-6)

Playoff Resumes’:

Brad: Appearances: 9, Record: 11-7, SB Appearances: 5, SB Wins: 2 (2009, 2011)

Katon: Appearances: 4, Record: 3-4, SB Appearances: 1: SB Wins: 0

Preview: The winner of Brad and Katon will go on to face the 1 Seed Kenny.  These two met in the playoffs in 2016 with Katon defeating Brad 153.5 to 97.9. This is Brad’s 10th playoff appearance in 12 seasons.   

X Factor Players:

Brad- #1 Travis Kelce might be the most valuable player in fantasy this season.  Given how bad the tight end position has been (of course last week there was a bit of an explosion from Darren Waller and other tight ends like Mike Gesicki and Logan Thomas had solid games). His 17.8 points per game is equivalent of having the #5 Fantasy Running Back in the Tight End slot.  He is Brad’s X Factor.  He has a test this week against Miami who is striving to convince the league of their validity as a playoff contender.  Beating the Chiefs might just accomplish that, but is easier said than done.  

Katon- #5 Aaron Rodgers.  In the last 7 games Rodgers has been a model of consistency, scoring between 22.5 and 31.9 fantasy points, and tossing multiple touchdowns in every one of those games.  On the season he averaged 24.7 points per game and should be a solid foundation for Katon’s point total in Round 1.  A dome game at Detroit isn’t a bad thing to keep that production moving forward.    

Matchup Notables:

Brad- His Chiefs Stack of #1 Patrick Mahomes/#1 Travis Kelce faces Miami.  In the last three weeks the Miami defense has given up an average of 7.9 fantasy points to opposing fantasy quarterbacks.  Now those Quarterbacks came from the Broncos, the Jets, and the Bengals.  Their kryptonite has been mobile quarterbacks with Cam Newton (25.7), Josh Allen (39.5), Russel Wilson (23.9) and Kyler Murray (40.8).  Mahomes may need to use his feet more in this one, which he has done some this season.  He rushed for over 25 yards in 6 games this season.  #3 Derrick Henry faces OPRK #29 Jacksonville coming off of a game where the Titans got destroyed (although their comeback makes it look a lot closer than it was) against the Browns last week and will be angry this week.  Derrick Henry facing Jacksonville twice this season was one of Brad’s main motivations for drafting him over Alvin Kamara.  In Week 2 Henry only got 8.4 fantasy points against them.  Brad will need these three to do average or better to have a shot to advance.    

Katon- #12 David Montgomery faces Houston ranked 31 OPRK.  Since the bye week Run D. Monty has averaged 25.5 fantasy points.  Potential smash spot for Montgomery who has been a true workhorse for Chicago the past two weeks.  #5 Keenan Allen also has a great matchup against Atlanta’s 31 OPRK. Atlanta averages 38 fantasy points against them per game to the Wide Receiver position.  Unless Mike Williams or James Guyton steps up, I imagine most of those points heading Allen’s way this week.  

Brad’s Final Thoughts:

Both teams are Top Heavy with a large percentage of their points coming from 3 players.  If Mahomes, Henry, and Kelce are cancelled out by Rodgers, Montgomery, and Allen, then this matchup might come down to everyone else.  Katon has better Rb2 in Nick Chubb facing Baltimore, Brad’s Wr1 Terry McLaurin could be a factor.  Honestly this game is pretty close to a toss up.  But given the matchups I think Katon’s big 3 have more potential to go off than Brad’s big 3.  So I’m inclined to believe that Katon may be favored to win ever so slightly.  

Bottom Bowl Preview:

Let’s talk about what you really came here for.  Balls.  That’s right, lottery balls that can won to increase one’s chance at a higher draft pick.  It worked out well with those with a Top 4 Pick this year.  The draft picks that made the playoffs were 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12.  So either you need to be #1 or get an even number.  Except of course for Scotty at #10 who got Brad’s Draft Grade kiss of death.  I digress, Bottom Bowl!

7. Chase (6-7) vs. 8. Tommy (6-7)

Chase won both regular season matchups against Tommy and they meet yet again.  The winner of this game will be in Game 1 of the second round and will already guarantee themselves 3 or more balls in the draft lottery next year.  So there is a lot at stake.  Chase opens up as a near 29 point favorite.  Had Chase’s luck gone slightly differently in the regular season his team has the potential of a post season run.  That run is still available just to win a potential higher draft pick next year.  Russell Wilson faces the Jets who are decent at stopping the run, but have given up 29+ fantasy points in 5 games this season.  Davante Adams faced Detroit, so 30 points isn’t a bad projection for him.  He averages 23.6 for God’s sake.  Tommy’s team is decent on paper with Top 10 Qb, 2 Top 10 Rb, 2 Top 18 WR, but Zeke getting neutered from the Dak injury, Kareem Hunt crapping out since Chubb’s return, and Kenny Golladay’s hip injury have pushed Tommy to the outside looking in.  And now a tough match against Chase.  A loss would put him in the Game 2 of Round 2, which is the most volatile Bottom Bowl game of the postseason.  Can Tommy pull off the upset and avenge his two losses in the regular season?

9. JD (5-8) vs. 10. Moose (5-8)

Moose won back-to-back titles and was striving for a three peat but wasn’t able to scrape together enough wins to make the playoffs despite scoring the third most points in the league and scoring the most in his division.  The salt in the wound thing about this season for Moose has to be the fact that the three other teams in his division all made the playoffs.  As you know in this league we practice “prima nocta” with the Champion being able to select the first team to be in their division.  JD started off rough, but he pulled off possibly the most lopsided trade in history this year.  Securing #3 Qb Josh Allen and #6 Rb Antonio Gibson for #11 Rb Kenyan Drake and a handcuff.  Unfortunately for JD he won’t have Gibson this week due to a turf toe injury, so he’ll have to rely on someone else to try and get him past Moose and into the coveted Game 1 of Round 2.  His key to victory will be #5 Aaron Jones versus Detroit.  Moose’s team exploded last week and enters this matchup out for blood.  Lamar Jackson @ Cleveland could help with that. 

11. Joe (4-9) vs. 12. Scotty (4-9)

Just realized the symmetry of the Bottom Bowl.  6-7 vs. 6-7, 5-8 vs. 5-8, and 4-9 vs. 4-9.  Joe stacked the Steelers this season and coupled them with Rookie Running Backs.  It looked good and I thought the strategy was going to work.  Then Steelers spread the ball out a lot making JuJu inconsistent and have a capped ceiling.  The rookies were impacted by crowded backfields, with Chiefs signing Le’veon Bell and the Colts relying on a rotation with Nyheim Hines stealing a lot of the valuable touches from Jonathan Taylor.  Scotty just got hit with the injury bug and he got hit hard.  Ekeler, Sanders, Conner, Dak.  Too many assets missing too many games to catch any momentum.  He traded injured Sanders for healthy Godwin and Godwin breaks a finger.  Par for the course.  The winner of this game moves on the volatile Game 2 in Round 2, the loser already is out of a chance at 6 and 5 balls and will secure 4 or less.  

Good Luck Everybody!

BBY 2020: Week 6 Recap & Week 7 Preview

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I apologize for not doing a write up last week.  The week simply got away from me.  This week’s write up was late as well due to a migraine on Tuesday.  All is well. 

Week 6 Recap

Katon (3-3) 84.8 vs. Tommy (3-3) 89.6

Katon got 15.0 points from the New York Giants Defense and 3.8 points from Aaron Rodgers and only lost by 4.8.  Tommy was led by Kenny Golladay’s 15.5.  Difference in the game was Kicker with Katon getting 2 from Stephen Gostkowski and Tommy get 10 from Joey Slye.  Tommy abandoned Stephen Gostkowski and Katon tried to turn him against him. Gostkoswki’s loyalties lie with Tommy. It sometimes comes down to the kicker.

Jen (5-1) 97.4 vs. JD (1-5) 85.7

The other “close” game of the week was Battle of the J’s.  Jen got 35 from Deshaun Watson who accounted for 35.9% of her total point output.  JD 5 starters in single digits and nobody scored over 15.  Another tough loss for JD who falls to 1-5 and has a tremendous uphill climb if he is to make the playoffs. 

Kenny (5-1) 78.3 vs. Mike (4-2) 150.1

Kenny’s first loss of the season comes at the hands of a 71.8 point ass whooping from Mike.  Kenny’s worst game of the year corresponded with Mike’s best game of the year.  Kenny had averaged 132.6 per game prior to this matchup.  He was without DK Metcalf (Bye) and Dalvin Cook (injury) and started the wrong Qb Bridgewater (9.4 points) over Ryan (34.6).  Mike was destined to smash in this contest.  His starting lineup put up 150.1, but had he started the right defense and flex he could’ve scored 182.5.  Justin Jefferson got him 38.1, Kyler Murray 28.8, George Kittle 23.4, and AJ Brown 20.1.  That’ll do.

Trey (4-2) 89.4 vs. Brad (3-3) 159.0

Brad rebounds from his 0.1 loss in Week 6 with a near 60 point curb stomping of Trey.  Trey was without his first two picks Josh Jacobs and Chris Carson.  His 89.4 was a noble effort and would’ve beaten half the league this week with 26.3 from Will Fuller and 17.9 from Cam Newton.  Mike Gesicki retired for some reason.  Brad had his first monster outing from Derrick Henry as he exploded with 46.4 points.  Brad went into Monday down by 10.4 points and got a combined 71.1 from Mahomes, Kelce, Drake, and his kicker.  This was capped off by a long touchdown run in garbage time by Kenyan Drake. 

Chase (2-4) 72.7 vs. Moose (2-4) 145.2

Moose exploded for his best game of the year getting 32.7 from Julio Jones, 31.2 from Lamar Jackson, 28.1 from Ronald Jones, 19.9 from Trey Burton, and 16.1 from his $66 man Chase Claypool.  No Alvin Kamara, no Darren Waller, no problem for Moose who has won 2 out of his last 3 games and looks poised to be a problem down the stretch.  Chase was without Russel Wilson, Michael Thomas, and Hunter Henry due to byes and their replacements combined for less than 30 points.  7 starters in single digits and nobody scored more than 14.6.  Where was this last week? 

Scotty (2-4) 86.6 vs. Joe (2-4) 103.1

Scotty’s team has been ravaged by injuries.  He picked up Andy Dalton who struggled mightily against the Cardinals, Miles Sanders injured his knee and missed the rest of the game, and he got a 0 from his Tight End.  Joe got solid performances from CEH with 21.9 and Steeler’s D/ST with 19.  Enough to get the W.

Week 7 Preview:

Brad (3-3) vs. Katon (3-3)

A couple middle of the pack teams fighting to stay in the playoff race.  Brad draws some terrible matchups with his KC Stack versus Denver @ Denver, Derrick Henry faces the Juggernaut Pittsburgh Defense, and Kenyan Drake faces Seattle who has been good against the run.  Terry McLaurin is his one bright spot this week drawing the ghost of the Cowboys team who got torched by the Cardinals last week.  Katon has Aaron Rodgers in a potential shootout against the Texans.  David Montgomery faces the Rams, Amari Cooper in the Washington game.  He has other players with favorable matchups like Mixon vs. Cleveland, Noah Fant vs. KC and Keenan Allen vs. Jax, but they are all questionable for the contest.  In 3 Wins Brad has averaged 147.1.  In 3 Losses Brad has averaged 98.6.  This certainly looks like a 98.6 week and not a 147 week.

Trey (4-2) vs. Chase (2-4)

Trey gets back Josh Jacobs and Chris Carson, which is the good news.  The bad news is Jacobs plays Tampa’s underrated defense who just donkey stomped the Green Bay Packers.  Also there are reports of Raiders linemen getting covid and not following protocols on the bye week, so Jacobs might be getting demolished all game.  Carson is @ Arizona.  In 2 games against the Cardinals last season Carson averaged about 70 rushing yards, 30 receiving yards, and didn’t score in either contest.  Tyler Boyd faces Cleveland again after getting a solid 7-72-1 stat line in their first outing, good for 16.7 fantasy points.  Chase is starting to get healthier, but then trades for another injured player in Miles Sanders.  Chase gets Russel Wilson back and hopes to have Michael Thomas back, but he now is battling ankle and hamstring injuries.  He’s starting two Eagles on Thursday Night Football against the Giants, what could go wrong?  Chase may or may not win this game, but if his team can get fully healthy for the back half of the season he can make a run to the playoffs and beyond.  Wilson-Sanders-Gaskin-Adams-Thomas-Le’Veon sounds dangerous.

Joe (2-4) vs. Mike (4-2)

Joe has some tough matchups this week with Big Ben @ Ten, CEH @ DEN, McKinnon @ NE, and JD McKissic being in Joe’s lineup.  Mike has Kyler Murray in a potential shootout with Seattle.  David Johnson who’s strengths matchup well with GB’s weakness.  This matchup also features some young studs at Wideout with Calvin Ridley for Joe and AJ Brown and Deebo Samuel for Mike.  This should be a good game, but Mike looks to be the early favorite.

JD (1-5) vs. Tommy (3-3)

Tommy lost when he scored 139.8 and won when he scored 89.6.  JD lost when he scored 138.9 and won when he scored 107.8.  So really there’s no telling what the hell is going to happen in this one.  JD’s team isn’t the best, but he has some great matchups.  Josh Allen vs. the Jets, Aaron Jones in potential shootout with Texans, Antonio Gibson in a breakout spot against the shell of the Cowboys, and Phillip Lindsay against KC who will try to keep Mahomes off the field with ball control.  Tommy has Tom Brady @ LV, Zeke @ Washington who’s front seven is highly talented and can take advantage of a severly banged up Dallas O-line, Kareem Hunt is in a smash spot against the Bengals.  He got 23.1 against them in Week 2, his highest point total of the season and that was sharing time with Nick Chubb.  Tommy’s Lions stack of Golladay and Swift face Atlanta’s defense that got Dan Quinn fired.  This has the makings to be a great game with more than likely one of these teams getting another unfortunate loss in a close game.

Moose (2-4) vs. Kenny (5-1)

Kenny was dominating the competition until last week.  Moose was struggling mightily until last week.  Can Kenny bounce back?  Is Moose for real?  Moose will be without Lamar Jackson who is on a bye and Kenny is without Dalvin Cook due to injury/bye.  Moose has Stafford @ Atlanta, Alvin Kamara coming off a bye vs. Carolina, RoJo coming off a monster outing against Vegas, Julio in the Detroit game and Waller vs. Tampa Bay.  Allen Robinson gets his date with Jalen Ramsey.  Kenny has Matt Ryan and Gurley in the Detroit game, Melvin Gordon’s drunk ass against KC, where he also has Tyreek Hill.  Diggs is in a smash spot against the hapless Jets who still haven’t fired Adam Gase for some reason.  DK Metcalf is a monster and Wr #6 post bye week, but will most likely face Patrick Peterson in a fun Wr/CB matchup to watch.  Should be a great game and I can see either team pulling this one out.

Scotty (2-4) vs. Jen (5-1)

Jen in Forrest Gumps voice, “I just kept winning…”  Scotty has been ravaged by injuries, he has Wentz versus the NYG on TNF, Conner @ Tennessee in a marquee AFC matchup, Justin Jackson versus Jacksonville, Jared Cook vs. Carolina, Brandin Cooks versus Green Bay.  So between the Jacksons and the Cooks Scotty is hoping to get a win in the books… Jen loves the D.  Meaning of course that most of her players names start with a D.  Deshaun, Devin, Devery, DeAndre, and DJ are going to battle it out and try to move Jen within 1 game of playoffville population 6.  Scotty makes a trade with Chase to bring in some reinforcements but loses his Miles Sanders in the process.  Now Scotty just has to make the correct starting lineup decisions.  I like Jen’s chances in this one. 

As always, best of luck everyone!

-Brad

BBY 2020: Week 4 Recap & Week 5 Preview

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Week 4 Recap:

Katon (3-1) 147.2 vs. JD (0-4) 138.9

JD entered Week 4 with a new team and a new dream.  He took a risk and traded his first round pick Kenyan Drake to Brad for thoroughbred Josh Allen and “This Year’s Miles Sanders” Antonio Gibson.  He was rewarded with 25.3 from Allen and 20.8 from Gibson.  He had 5 players score 19.2 or more and scored his highest point total so far this season with 138.9.  Unfortunately, fate had other plans, and it wasn’t enough to overcome Joe Mixon’s explosion of 42.1 points, Aaron Rodgers 32.5 points, and Amari Cooper’s 30.4 points.  Katon lost Nick Chubb in the Dallas game, but you couldn’t tell with his 147.2 points scored.  JD remains beaten and moves to Week 5 still searching for his first win.

Moose (1-3) 114.0 vs. Joe (1-3) 109.0

Speaking of first win, Moose started non-division games a perfect 1-0 after skunking the first few weeks.  Lamar Jackson set the pace on this one with his 50+ yard rushing touchdown to the tune of 26.9 points.  Kamara continued his excellent season with another 19.4 points.  Ronald Jones played a Chargers defense riddled with injuries and got a respectable 18.8.  Allen Robinson enjoyed having Nick Foles throwing to him with 22.6.  It all came down to Monday Night Football.  CEH got 10.6 for Joe, setting up the Julio vs. Ridley +0.2 match.  Julio got 5.2 in the first half and exited the game due to injury.  Ridley couldn’t corral a would-be touchdown late in the game, when the GB defender punched it out of his hands.  Joe got a 24.7 from Mike Evans, 24.3 from Ryan Fitzmagic, and 19.2 from Jerick McKinnon who received every single first half snap against the Eagles.  Congrats on the first win Moose!

Tommy (1-3) 139.8 vs. Trey (3-1) 154.0

Tommy’s patience in Tom Brady paid off to the tune of 35.3 fantasy points.  Zeke had 16.5, Kareem Hunt had 19.1 and Adam Thielen had 25.2.  Trey’s team was just too powerful.  Scoring his highest point total so far this season with 154.0.  Trey had 7/9 starters in double digits and had 4 of those starters get 22.3 or more.  #6 Rb Chris Carson got 23.5, #5 James Robinson got 12.7, but most impressive was Odell Beckham Jr’s big day with 37.9 points.  He went off against the familiar foe Dallas Cowboys.  Tommy’s best scoring week of the season was still not enough for Trey this week. 

Jen (3-1) 91.6 vs. The Corpse of Chase’s Team (1-3) 85.5

I like Jen’s team because it’s fun.  Joe Burrow who got 18.1, CeeDee Lamb got 22.7, and Devin Singletary got 16.1.  Chase had a noble effort.  The only preseason-intentioned starters were his Qb and Tight End.  His Qb is #2 and got him another 23.9 this week.  His Rams D/ST got him 12.  Everybody else was held to single digits.  When you are starting two tight ends, Devonta Freeman, Myles Gaskin, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Greg Ward wins will be tough to come by. 

Mike (3-1) 139.9 vs. Brad (2-2) 86.5

Enough of these close games, let’s look at a good ole’ fashion ass kickin’.  Super Bowl I rematch ended with Mike trouncing Brad.  Mike got 23 from Kyler Murray, 19.6 from Mike Davis, and 20.8 from two random ass touchdowns for Latavius Murray.  He put the stank on it on SNF with George Kittle’s 35.6 point outing.  If you don’t enjoy watching George Kittle play football then you do not enjoy watching football.  He’s a football player and he’ all Mike’s.  Brad wind up with an impromptu bye week for Derrick Henry and several questions about the KC-NE game that wind up getting postponed a day and wind up a bit of a defensive battle anyway.  Add the (what appears to be) lopsided trade to JD and here Brad is 86.5 points and a bad loss.  Can’t win many games when 4 players score 3.9 or less. 

Kenny (4-0) 141.3 vs. Scotty (2-2) 102.1

Kenny continues his revenge tour, crushing Scotty.  Because of unknowns of the NE-KC game Kenny benched Tyreek Hill and it wind up not mattering.  He got 30.6 from Dalvin Cook, 27.8 from Melvin Gordon III, and 18.8 from Todd Gurley II.  Scotty lost Austin Ekeler to an unfortunate hamstring injury that is looking to sideline him for several weeks.  With Jared Cook out, Scotty turned to Adam Trautman, who was more effective as an almost $0 DFS play rather than a start in season-long leagues.  Tyler Lockett decided not to show up this week and Miles Sanders was held to single digits.  Dak’s 42.2 accounted for 41.3% of Scotty’s point output this week. 

Week 5 Preview:

  1. Kenny (4-0) vs. Katon (3-1)

Putting some respect to Kenny’s name by having his matchup be first this week.  Kenny will have #3 Dalvin Cook @ Seattle on SNF, #10 Melvin Gordon @ NE, #3 DK Metcalf vs. Minnesota, #5 Stefon Diggs @ Tennessee, Tyler Higbee @ Washington, and #8 Tyreek Hill vs. LV.  Two top two running backs and three top eight wide receivers.  4-0.  His challenger this week is Katon.  Katon just lost Nick Chubb for 4-6 weeks and has Aaron Rodgers on a bye.  In comes Jared Goff @ Washington.  He’ll have #7 Joe Mixon @ Baltimore (who just gave up 20+ points to Antonio Gibpson), and #28 Rb David Montgomery on TNF vs. TB.  #2 Amari Cooper faces the exploitable Giants, and #20 Robert Woods joins Goff for the Rams Stack.  This game looks like it’ll come down to Keenan Allen vs. New Orleans on MNF for Katon.  Looks to be a close game. 

Joe (1-3) vs. Tommy (1-3)

Potential Kicker Bowl early in the season here with 1-3 Rivals engage.  Joe will have his Steelers Stack back to attack the Eagles on Sunday.  CEH faces LV, Jonathan Taylor Thomas plays @ Cleveland.  Mike Evans is on TNF against the Bears maybe.  Calvin Ridley may or may not play vs. Carolina.  Tommy has Tom Brady in the Chicago game on TNF.  Zeke faces the Giants and Kareem Hunt faces the Colts.  Adam Thielen will be featured in the SNF Seattle game where the Seattle secondary has been toasted so far this year.  Joe looks to be the favorite here, but in a rivalry game anything can happen.

Trey (3-1) vs. Scotty (2-2)

Another great game this week, features Trey and Scotty.  Trey’s success this season has been overshadowed by Kenny’s undefeated season, but he is right there in the conversation of contenders.  With Cam Newton most likely out next week due to having COVID and Matthew Stafford having a bye week, Trey might be garbage bin hunting Qb’s on the waiver wire.  Scotty will have #1 Qb Dak Prescott against the Giants.  Trey will have #6 Chris Carson who at this point might be more machine than man since he can’t seem to get injured.  He gets knee twisted on dirty hit, still plays.  Concussion protocol during the game, nah he’s fine.  By the end of the year he’s going to look like Red at the end of Pineapple Express.  #5 James Robinson is @ Houston, who may be motivated following the firing of the dictator BOB.  Will Fuller may also be unleashed upon news of BOB’s departure.  Josh Jacobs faces Kansas City.  Scotty won’t have Austin Ekeler for awhile, but he gets back James Conner.  Conner has a tough matchup against Philly.  On the opposite side of the field he’ll also have Miles Sanders going up against a well rested Steelers front.  Scotty will be hoping Tyler Lockett comes back to life in a much anticipated shootout on SNF. 

Jen (3-1) vs. Mike (3-1)

Second highest combined win total squaring off in Week 5 features Jen vs. Mike.  Jen has Burrow @ Baltimore or Watson vs. JAX.  Devin Singletary is @ Tennessee and Devery Henderson faces Washington.  Hopkins plays the Jets who might be led by Joe Flacco this week.  DJ Moore has a pretty matchup vs. Atlanta.  CeeDee Lamb faces the Giants.  For Mike he has Kyler Murray in that Jets game.  David Jonson in the Jax game, and Mike Davis in the Atlanta game.  Interesting juxtaposition of players playing in the same game against one another for Jen/Mike.  I don’t know who wins, but I’ll have nightmares of what George Kittle did to me last week.

Chase (1-3) vs. Brad (2-2)

Chase will be without Davante Adams, Mason Crosby and TJ Hockensen due to bye weeks.  Chris Godwin and Leonard Fournette are Questionable to play on TNF.  We’ll have to wait and see if Michael Thomas and Raheem Mostert are ready to rock or not.  CGM plays on MNF so Chase will need to plan yet again for a MNF person to be potentially out.  But we do know Chase has #2 Russell Wilson in a shootout on SNF.  Brad is still recovering from the ass kicking he received last week by Mike, Covid, and himself in what may go down as the worst trade in the history of the league.  Despite all that, Brad is at full strength (as of Tuesday morning anyway).  #4 Patrick Mahomes faces the Raiders, Derrick Henry has a tough matchup against Buffalo, Kenyan Drake has one last chance to not make Brad look moronic against the hapless Jets.  #12 Terry McLaurin gets Jalen Ramsey and the Rams this week.  Julian Edelman will have God-knows-who throwing him the ball against Denver who will be starting God-knows-who at Qb as well.  #2 Travis Kelce faces the Raiders and Michael Gallup faces the Bears.  Gallup will remain in my Goddamn flex spot every week this year.  I’ll lose weeks because he’s getting less catches and yards than Cedric “Who the hell is” Wilson while Dak throws 500 yards every f-bomb-ing week.  I’d like to imagine Michael Gallup running on the football field like he’s in a field of clovers.  Just prancing around, skipping along, not a care in the world.  Might as well because Dak doesn’t look for the mf-er.  After having the #1 Qb on his bench, Brad now somehow has the #1 TE and #1 Kicker on his bench.      

Moose (1-3) vs. JD (0-4)

Last and certainly least: The matchup with the least number of wins.  Moose finally stopped the madness last week securing his first victory while JD got bum rushed by Katon.  Moose has Lamar Jackson vs. Cincy, #1 Fantasy Rb Kamara vs. the Chargers who made Rojo relevant last week.  Rojo @ Chicago on TNF.  Julio vs. Carolina, Allen Robinson in the TNF game and maybe a couple more starters on MNF.  JD has #3 Josh Allen vs. Tennessee, Antonio Gipson vs. LAR, Hollywood Brown and Mark Andrews vs. Cincy and Robby Anderson vs. Atlanta.  Cardinals D/ST against Joe Flacco’s Jets.  Moose is hoping Lamar Jackson rushes more than he passes this week as JD has his top two pass catchers.  Should be a great game. 

Best of Luck everybody!  Make sure to make as many trades as possible, they always work out, trust me.  😉

BBY Week 2 Recap & Week 3 Preview

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Week 2 Recap:

Moose (1-1) 112.2 vs. Katon (1-1) 132.3

Moose has had 5 touchdowns scored from his opponents Rb1 Slot in the first two weeks.  After Trey went off for 134.3 last week, Katon gets 132.3 this week bringing Moose’s average Points Against to 133.3 in an 0-2 start.  Katon’s team was solid all around with 7/9 starters getting to double digits.  You know it’s bad when even the Bears Running Back gets 20 points.  Moose on the other hand appeared to have drew a stinker of a week prior to MNF.  Even the incredible Lamar Jackson had a pedestrian 17.4 outing.  Moose had 6 players score in single digits.    When your players in your Rb1, Rb2, Wr1, Wr2 slots combine for 21.6 you’re going to have a bad time.  Moose entered MNF down by about 80 points.  Darren Waller and Alvin Kamara combined for 59.2 points and winning Brad $17 on DraftKings Showdown slate. 

Jen (1-1) 95.1 vs. Trey (2-0) 147.6

The biggest story for Jen is obviously her losing Saquon Barkley in this one.  #2 Overall pick looking like he tore his ACL and will be done for the year.  Jen’s Wideouts Hopkins, DJ Moore, and CeeDee Lamb carried her team combining for a solid 53.3 points.  Just didn’t have enough for Trey’s team.  Trey got 37.5 from Cam Newton, 18.3 from Chris Carson, 15.4 from Odell Beckham, 15.7 from Hayden Hurst, 14.7 from Mark Ingram, 19 from Bal D/ST, and 15 from Justin Tucker.  Trey outscored Jen’s peripherals 49.7 to 15.7.  This was even more impressive considering Trey got 0 from Will Fuller, who unsurprisingly pulled a hammy in the game.  Trey has now started off the season with games of 134.3 and 147.6, averaging 140.95 and is in 1st place.      

Bradley (1-1) 139.6 vs. JD (0-2) 119.4

This was a hell of a comeback victory for Brad.  JD came out swinging with a MONSTER 48.6 point explosion from Aaron Jones.  After the early afternoon games at 3:07pm Central time Brad was down 90.8 to 10.9.  ESPN at that moment projected JD to win 140.6 to 95.3.  Brad had drafted Derrick Henry so he can smash Jacksonville and they held him to 25 carries for 84 yards.  Luckily for Brad his 2nd and 3rd Round pick combo of Kelce-Mahomes combined for 49.9 points.  He also got much needed reinforcements from McLaurin and Edelman who combined for 49.9 points as well.  Harrison Butker added two 58 yard field goals and amazingly Brad wind up winning by 20.2 points.  JD couldn’t ride Aaron Jones into the sunset due to four starters getting single digits and everyone else on his team scoring 13 points or less.    

Joe (1-1) 112.0  vs. Kenny (2-0) 134.5

2-0 K-Dub!  This is a classic scenario.  Someone gets excited about Thursday Night Football.  They want to watch their player play because there is nothing else going on.  So they start someone that they probably shouldn’t.  Joe threw in AJ Green into his flex spot.  Green got an impressive 13 targets, but only caught 3 of them for a paltry 29 yards.  Meanwhile come Sunday Calvin Ridley went off for the 2nd week in a row to the tune of 29.4 points on Joe’s bench.  Joe had a pretty solid outing otherwise with 21.2 from Big Ben, 21 from Jonathan Taylor who looks like the real deal in Indy, 22.9 from Mike Evans with Chris Godwin out.  Kenny followed up his 134.1 week 1 with a 134.5 week 2.  Matt Ryan got 28.4, Dalvin Cook got 16.1, Tyreek Hill got 21.3, Metcalf got 19.2, and Melvin Gordon sans Philip Lindsay got 15.4 against a tough Steelers defense.  Kenny’s team is for real. 

 Mike (2-0) 140.9 vs. Chase (1-1) 103.3

Yikes.  Chase has now had the following lost to injuries this season: Picks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9.  That is just awful luck.  Chase was still able to eclipse 100 points this week with about a third coming from Russel Wilson’s 33.3.  Raheem Mostert started the game with an 80 yard touchdown, but didn’t do much more after that  and didn’t play the second half due to a knee injury.  Davante Adams pulled a hammy.  Chase’s peripherals combined for 35.3, but even that was outmatched by Mike’s 53.4 peripheral performance.  Mike got 32.1 from Kyler Murray who is doing it all this season.  Mike also got 22.8 from Christian McCaffrey who also succumbed to the injury bug.  He injured his ankle and couldn’t finish the contest.  A glimmer of hope left for Chase lies in Leonard Fournette who seemed to have taken over the Bucs starting running back duties with a 28.6 point explosion on Chase’s bench.  And he has Devonta Freeman who very well may sign with the Giants to take over their lead back duties after the loss of Saquon.  Chase is one of the best managers in the league, but it appears this season he will be tested with some early adversity. 

Tommy (0-2) 98.4 vs. Scotty (1-1) 137.5

Tommy’s picks of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkoswki look to be his kryptonite.  The dusty old timers combined for a pathetic 8.6 fantasy points this week.  Tommy almost got to 100 total points mainly due to Zeke and Kareem Hunt combining for 42.3 points.  Scotty’s team exploded this week.  It was good to have Miles Sanders back in his lineup to the tune of 18.6 points and he looked good doing it.  Ekeler is splitting time with Kelley with Ekeler getting 57% of the snaps and Kelley getting 52% (yes there were a few plays with both of them on the field).  Scotty benched James Conner after a terrible Week 1 and he looked as though Week 1 never happened with 22.1 on Scotty’s bench.  Of course, the main man for Scotty this week was Dak Prescott who scored 4 total touchdowns including 3 rushing touchdowns for a total of 44.8 fantasy points outscoring Tommy’s top two scorers combined.  It hurt Tommy even worst seeing Dak get all those goal line scores considering Tommy had Zeke.  What could have been. 

Week 3 Preview:

Katon (1-1) vs. Trey (2-0)

First place Trey enters Week 3 on fire.  He tries to move to 3-0, but standing in his way is Katon who just out Moose.   Katon has Aaron Rodgers against New Orleans, who just let Derrick Carr (pukes) throw for 282 and 3 touchdowns.  Rodgers will hope to have Davante Adams to throw to in this one.  #9 Rb Nick Chubb faces Washington who has done a decent job against the run to start the year.  Chubb played last Thursday, so a little extra rest might set him up for success.  Mixon faces Philly who is also decent against the run.  Amari Cooper plays @ Seattle, a should-be shootout.  Robert Woods gets a tough draw against Buffalo, in what might also become a shootout.  David Montgomery should do okay against Atlanta.  49ers D/ST looked a lot better two weeks ago.  Some significant losses on the defensive line will make it interesting to see how they play against Barkley-less NY Giants.  Trey has #3 Qb Cam Newton vs. Las Vegas, #4 Rb Josh Jacobs in the same game.  #7 Rb Chris Carson is in the Dallas @ Seattle game.  This game will come down to Monday Night Football with Trey having Mark Ingram and Raven’s D/ST going up against Kansas City. 

Moose (0-2) vs. Jen (1-1)

Moose hasn’t started 0-2 since 2016 when he went 7-6 and wind up missing the playoffs.  He’ll look to avoid 0-3 against Jen this week.  He has Kamara in his flex due to the late start time, so Rojo and Joshua Kelley are holding down Rb1 and Rb2.  Rojo looks to have been usurped by Leonard Fournette this past weekend.  Would not be surprised if Moose looks elsewhere this week and beyond.  #23 Rb Joshua Kelley appears to have taken the Melvin Gordon role and looks good doing it.  Carolina was just gashed by Buga, so look for Kelley and Ekeler to both have success.  Julio Jones faces Chicago, Allen Robinson is @ Atlanta, #3 TE Darren Waller is @ NE, and #2 Rb Kamara faces GB.  Kamara fell to Moose after Brad picked Derrick Henry.  A decision we will continue to monitor.  Jen is rolling out a barn burner of a Rb1 and Rb2 combo herself with Devin Singletary and Devery Henderson.  Henderson balled out last week and with injuries to Cam Akers (ribs) and Malcolm Brown (finger) look for Henderson to get the bulk of carries versus a solid Bills team.  #4 Wr DeAndre Hopkins has an incredible 22/25 reception to target ratio to start the season.  Kyler Murray’s hot start has helped skyrocket Hopkins value and further dunking on Brad’s draft grades.  Jen also has DJ Moore who is setup for a revenge game against his former manager.  He looked great last week when Carolina was playing from behind catching 8 of 13 targets for 120 yards.  Chargers defense is formidable, but Moore’s floor is reassured.  😊CeeDee Lamb has outscored Michael Gallup and is currently Wr#24.  His matchup against Atlanta is sexy and is setting this up to be a very good matchup.

Brad (1-1) vs. Joe (1-1)

Both Brad and Joe enter Week 3 after receiving beat downs courtesy of Kenny.  This game is for 2nd place in D2.  Brad features the #1 Fantasy Qb Josh Allen… on his bench.  Which I’m okay with.  He’s not dropping 35 points per game for any of you idiots.  #8 Patrick Mahomes rebounded nicely from his Week 1 stinker with a 30 point performance against the Chargers.  This week he’ll battle it out versus Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.  The last two times Mahomes has faced the Ravens he has averaged 375.5 passing yards, 2.5 touchdowns, and 0.5 interceptions.  Joe features #13 Qb Big Ben who faces the Texans.  This could be a shootout or a blowout, as Houston’s defense has looked pretty bad the first two weeks.  Houston started this season against the Chiefs-Ravens-Steelers, which is absolutely brutal.  But good for Joe’s Big Ben-JuJu-Steelers D/ST stack.  This battle might be decided by Rookie Running Backs.  Joe has Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Jonathan Taylor.  Brad has Antonio Gibson or JK Dobbins or someone else, he’s a mess.  Which one would you rather start:           

Player A: 10 Touches, 83 yards, 2 touchdowns

Player B: 25 Touches, 96 yards, 1 touchdown

Brad has #18 Derrick Henry who is already feeling the TD regression this season.  His choice of Henry over Kamara and CEH is looking worse and worse by the week.  Terry McLaurin and Julian Edelman had nice outings last week.  They’ll look to continue with Terry facing the Browns and Edelman facing the Raiders.  Joe has Mike Evans against the Broncos and #1 Fantasy Wr Calvin Ridley vs. Chicago.  Maybe one day the #1 Qb and #1 Wr will actually be in their teams’ starting lineups.  Should be a great game.    

Kenny (2-0) vs. JD (0-2)

Put some respect to his name!  Kenny has come out smoking hot.  Averaging 134.3, 1st place in D2 and #2 overall in the standings.  He faces JD who couldn’t capture a victory last week even with Aaron Jones 48.6 point explosion.  Kenny features #6 Qb Matt Ryan vs. Chicago, #8 Rb Dalvin Cook vs. Tennessee, #15 Melvin Gordon against Tampa Bay, and Todd Gurley.  JD has #1 Rb Aaron Jones @ New Orleans, #25 Kenyan Drake vs. Detroit.  As of right now JD is riding with Daniel Jones at Qb, but after averaging on 12 points per game he may turn elsewhere either via trade or waiver wire.  Kenny also has #6 DK Metcalf who is looking more and more like this year’s Kenny Golladay.  This game will come down to Monday Night Football with Kenny’s Tyreek Hill and Justin Tucker versus JD’s Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and Mark Andrews.  Should be fun to watch!

Chase (1-1) vs. Scotty (1-1)

Yikes.  Chase’s injuries have included Michael Thomas or as he refers to him “CGM” which is from his twitter handle “Can’t Guard Mike”, Davante Adams, Chris Godwin, Le’Veon Bell, Raheem Mostert, Brandon Auyik, Jerry Jeudy, etc.  Any who it looks like he’s starting #14 Rb Leonard Fournette and #27 Rb Myles Gaskin.  It helps that he has #2 Russel Wilson against Dallas.  Third shootout to start the year?  Yes please.  Chase is hoping CGM, Adams, and Godwin are all available this week otherwise he’ll have to get creative.  Scotty has the other Qb in the Seattle-Dallas game in #4 Dak Prescott.  He also has Miles Sanders against Cin and Austin Ekeler against Panthers.  Both Miles Sanders and James Conner looked great last week after both sitting Week 1 (pretty much).  This should be a great game and it’ll be interesting to see how Chase’s team plays out up until Sunday kickoff.    

Mike (2-0) vs. Tommy (0-2)

Mike tragically lost Christian McCaffrey to a high ankle sprain leading him to start David Johnson and $75 FAAB money (cough cough) I mean Latavius Murray against Green Bay.  We’ll see if his Rb2 gets swapped out tomorrow.  😊  Mike is hoping to have AJ Brown and George Kittle back in his lineup, but he might be digging for starters as Sunday approaches.  Tommy is wheeling out the Ghosts of Fantasy Past with Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski still somehow implanted into his starting lineup.  Must be that sexy 15.6 fantasy points per game they are averaging together.  He has #5 Zeke @ Seattle, #10 Kareem Hunt vs. Washington, Adam Thielen vs. Tennessee and John Brown vs. the Rams.  Mike is hoping #5 Kyler Murray’s juicy matchup with Detroit and TY Hilton squaring off against the hapless “why haven’t they fired Gase yet” Jets.   This is another matchup who’s starters could look a lot different come Sunday. 

As always, best of luck everybody!  I look forward to seeing how much yall drop in FAAB money tonight!  (Probably too much)