Maryanne Smith League Season 23 Draft Grades

September 5, 2023 bradleybertoniere Draft Guide, Fantasy Football, NFL, Quarterbacks, Rankings, Sophomores, Wide Receivers Fantasy Football, NFL, Preview

Annual Disclaimer: Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. This is my opinion. Last Year These were the Draft Grades:

Mike: A+
Caleb: A
Ben: A
Stephen: B+
Max: B+
Quentin: B
Logan: B
Brad: B
Josh: C
Andy: C-

And these were the Final Standings:

Brad
Logan
Andy
Mike
Stephen
Ben
Josh
Caleb
Quentin
Max

So the playoff teams were ranked #1, #7, #8, and #10. At least I called Mike having a good team last year. Let’s see how I do this year!

Stephen.

Stephen gets the #1 Pick and goes with the smash Justin Jefferson pick. Jefferson led the NFL in both catches with 128 and receiving yards with 1,809 last season. He was the youngest player in NFL history to lead the league in both. He is 24. He is an LSU guy. And I’m bullish on the Vikings offense this season. 18 picks later Stephen was up again at the 2/3 turn. He went with Jaylen Waddle (WR#7 last year) and Chris Olave (WR#25 last year). Olave is looking to make a sophomore jump in Year 2. WR’s typically perform 101.4% in their second season comparing ppr points by the number of years in the NFL to players career baseline averages. Waddle is the perfect fit in Mike McDaniels offense and I see no reason for him to not repeat his big play 2022 season. This gives Stephen the best trio of Wide Receivers in the league by far. In Round 4/5 turn Stephen went with two Vikings in TJ Hockenson and Alexander Mattison. Hockenson finished as the #2 Tight End last year and I look for him to pick up where he left off last season (at least while Jordan Addison gets acclimated into the NFL). Expect a little pep in his step after signing a 4 year, $66,000,000 contract making him the highest paid tight end in the league. Evan Silva placed a large bet on Mattison to win the rushing title with 40:1 odds. To quote the big dog himself, “Alexander Mattison inherits Dalvin Cook’s workhorse role after re-signing a two-year, $7 million deal, 91% of which is guaranteed. Mattison possesses prototypical feature back size (5-foot-11/ 221) and has been treated commensurately by Vikings coaches in past opportunities to spell Cook; Mattison’s touch counts in his past five starts were 24, 32, 32, 25, and 16. Last year, Mattison outplayed Cook on a one-to-one basis, finishing 16^th in PFF rushing grade compared to Cook’s 64^th overall placement… I’m willing to draft Mattison aggressively above his ADP this season.” Mattison has had a small injury this offseason and Vikings have been rumored to want to sign another back for depth, but it sure looks like Mattison is in line for a Top 15 RB season. In Round 6/7 Stephen was looking for depth pieces at RB and went with JK Dobbins and James Cook. Great selections. Dobbins knee looks disgusting but he’s playing and this is redraft, so I don’t have a problem with seeing what he can do in Todd Monken’s offense. James Cook should take the lions share of the running back work for Buffalo now that Devin Singletary is a Texan, but look for Damien Harris and/or Latavius Murray to be an annoyance, stealing some goal line work (if Josh Allen doesn’t steal it that is). I might have gone White over Cook, but that’s more conservative and with your zero running back approach to the first 4 rounds the swing for the fences appeal of Cook makes sense. He’s certainly on a better offense. In Rounds 8 and 9 you went David Montgomery and Gabe Davis. Good depth pieces as Montgomery could be the Jamaal Williams of the Lions offense this season. In Round 10 you went with Anthony Richardson and Courtland Sutton. Sutton has Top 25 WR potential this year with the injuries to Jeudy and Sean Payton running the show. Of course he is still at the mercy of Russel Wilson, so it’s good that he’s a depth piece and won’t be relied on. As far as Richardson goes I predict he will finish the year as a Top 12 Fantasy Qb. Like I said in the draft comparing Anthony Richardson to Derrick Henry. Richardson is taller, heavier, and faster. His head coach was Jalen Hurts’ head coach. They are designing the offense around him. In the preseason game against the Eagles he ran for 38 yards in the first half. He had another run called back for holding. His completion percentage was rough, but they drove down the field and scored on 3 possessions (17 points). If you can look past completion percentage and look at fantasy stats then Richardson is going to be a great fantasy Qb in Year 1. In Round 12 and 13 you and Michael had a weird moment where he made your pick for you? He was like Rashod Bateman is available. Are you taking him Stephen? Stephen was hesitant and then said “yeah”. Don’t know what that was all about. I know Stephen Danley’s team name was famously “Your Sister’s Keeper” so his Michael trying to be named “My Brother’s Keeper”. Super Weird. Stephen also took Danny Dimes and Geno Smith. He could have 3 Top 15 Qbs. Good for depth, tough to choose a starter.

Draft Grade: A. Stephen’s team is going to get so many freaking targets it’s going to be insane. Drafting 1^st is a huge advantage and Stephen took advantage of the advantage. Advantageous. Stephen’s team is a contender.

Caleb.

Caleb goes Christian McCaffrey. Run CMC looked great for the Niners. He took over Deebo Samuel’s previous role as the Wide-Back. I’m sure they will try to keep him fresh and sprinkle in an annoying amount of Elijah Mitchell, but I’m okay with the pick. Looking at the Round 2/3 Running Backs I don’t blame you. I still would have gone Ja’Marr Chase, but to each their own. In the 2^nd you had Jalen Hurts drop to you. Hurts averaged almost 30 points per game last year. He only finished as Fantasy Qb#3 because he got injured and missed Weeks 16 and 17. To the detriment of Andy last year. In the 3^rd you stacked Hurts with Devonta Smith. Smith has drawn Marvin Harrison comparisons and should continue to be 1B to AJ Brown’s 1A roll. This stack could win you some weeks. In Round 4 you went Kenneth Walker III. Walker is Evan Silva’s RB#11 and he has him ranked higher than Gibbs, Jones, Etienne, and Mixon, so you might’ve sneaked in a Top 10 RB as your RB2. Concern is the high draft capital used on Zach Charbonnet, but I see Walker as the true starter and Charbonnet as just a backup for now. In Round 5 you went with Breece Hall. This was a little early for me as I see him being in a time share with Dalvin Cook for most of the season, but he has late season breakout potential (and if you read my Mattison portion of Stephen’s grade you’ll see that Dalvin isn’t the Dalvin that he used to be). Sometimes players coming back from ACL tears can have some soft tissue issues like hamstring pulls and things like that, so that’s the concern, but as a high risk/high reward RB3 I’m okay with it. I probably would have gone conservative and gone with Dameon Pierce to secure the volume. In Round 6 and 7 you drafted your WR2 and WR3 and both of these picks were horrendous and disgusting. You have 30-year-old Tyler Lockett on a team that just drafted arguably the best wide receiver in the 2023 draft class JSN. WR’s entering their 9^th season typically have a drop off statistically and do not hit their baseline average performance. You went with Chris Godwin who gets a significant downgrade at Qb going from Brady to Baker. The offensive line is atrocious, and you know what Brady was good at? Quick release. You know what Baker is bad at? Quick release. In Round 8 you went with Michael Pittman Jr. He’s going to have some good weeks and could be Anthony Richardson’s #1 WR, but it’s going to be a frustrating ride. When will Richardson’s accuracy be on and when will it be off? Good luck. In Round 9 you went with Isiah Pacheco. Love the depth piece. He could start for you some weeks in the flex and be a good running back to plug in if you have injuries. Gibson, Toney, Chig, and Achane. Gibson is a solid depth running back. Toney is a gadget player. He looked cool in the playoffs. They drew up a lot of creative stuff for him. If his injury history and off field issues can subside for a couple of freaking weeks we might be able to see what he can do because they’ve treated him like their #1 Wide Receiver all offseason.

Draft Grade: C+. You are in the “Could potentially compete” category. Your Wide Receivers are rough. You would have been better off going with Chase-Smith and having your RB’s be Walker-Hall/Pacheco/Gibson instead of Smith-Lockett. What a shame (in Gordon Ramsey’s voice)

Quentin.

Congrats again on your new addition Q! You read the book! Get the Top Tight End! Travis Kelce. He’s entering his age 34 season, but with his playing style he has a chance to extend his career beyond normal expectations. He catches, runs smooth, and gets down gently. He reminds me of Marvin Harrison sometimes the way he gets down to avoid injury. I wouldn’t have taken him over Ja’Marr Chase, but this gives you a guy scoring Top 5 RB numbers while half of the league is going to be praying for 6-10 points from their Tight End spot. It’s a huge advantage. Also, at a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe last month I saw him shotgun a beer and talk smack with a Niners fan about whether he’s the top tight end or not. It was awesome. In Round 2 you had 2022 WR#3 Davante Adams fall into your lap. Adams proved last year Qb doesn’t matter as much. He had 180 targets last year. Jimmy G is comparable to Derek Carr in my opinion. Also, I watched him play golf at the same celebrity golf tournament and he has a decent swing. In Round 3 you went Patrick Mahomes who (you guessed it) I saw at that celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe. This gives you a solid trio in Mahomes-Kelce-Adams. Solid Qb1, WR1, and TE1. Great start. In Round 4 you took Keenan Allen. I hated this pick. He wasn’t at the golf tournament. Just kidding just kidding that’s not why I hate it. Allen wasn’t the best WR for the Chargers the last two seasons. That was Mike Williams. Allen is constantly hurt and they drafted Quentin Johnston for a reason. You needed a RB1 and instead you chose a questionable WR2. I like the Chargers this year, so maybe if he can stay healthy he can do something, but I feel like this was the pick that is going to bury you this season. You could’ve taken Alexander Mattison and had a solid RB1. Ouch. In Round 5 you took Amari Cooper. Cooper will be a better WR2 than Allen. Cooper finished as the WR#10 last year and there is no reason to doubt he won’t repeat that success now that he’s had more time with Watson at Qb. In Round 6 you took Cam Akers as your RB1. What a crazy year last year for the Rams. They were going to trade Akers, then no they weren’t. Darrell Henderson starts. Then they cut Henderson. Akers was coming off the torn Achilles in 2021. Which is normally a death sentence for running backs (see James Robinson, Marlon Mack, etc). The offensive line sucks. I haven’t touched Akers this season. Only bright spot is he did finish 2022 with 3 straight 100 yard games. I guess that’s some form of hope to build on this year. In Round 7 you took your RB2 in James Conner. I saw a meme online that said Conner is expected to score 100% of the rushing touchdowns for the Cardinals this season. That’s right, all four of them. Conner is a decent volume player. Keontay Ingram isn’t going to outplay him. But this team could be historically bad. I would have gone Rachaad White over him. Who is also a volume play, but on a slightly better team. Slightly. In Round 8 you took Raheem Mostert. This was a good pick. This gives you an actual running back to start in Week 1. In Rounds 9 and 10 you took Michael Thomas and Skyy Moore. Couple of sleeper wide receivers to give you some depth behind your starting trio. I liked the Elijah Mitchell and Kenneth Gainwell picks. Mitchell is a handcuff for CMC in Kyle Shanahan’s offense and Gainwell is rumored to be the 3^rd down and two-minute offense back for the Eagles. These are lucrative roles. A little bit better if we were full ppr, but I like the flier when you consider the injury histories of D’Andre Swift and Rashaad Penny.

Draft Grade: D+. I loved your trio to start. Mahomes-Kelce is going to be fun for you to watch. Especially when they score a touchdown and you get the coveted 10 point swing against your opponent. But your WR2 and running backs are atrocious. I don’t see you being a contender this season unless you manage the heck out of this roster. Trade, free agents, waivers. Make it work.

Andy.

Ja’Marr Chase really fell to you at 4?!? What a gift from the heavens. Burrow to Chase should continue to be awesome. Chase finished as WR#12 last year, but that was due to him missing a few games after he allegedly injured his hip celebrating a touchdown. In the offseason it was reported that Chase has a woman stalker who is threatening him and his mother leading him to file a restraining order. They hooked up one night and he wind up with a stage five clinger situation as a result. This might explain the broken hip last year. I digress. He provides a great floor and robust ceiling each week for Andy in the WR1 position. In Round 2 Andy goes with Garret Wilson over Davante Adams. All my rankings had Adams over Wilson this season. I understand the allure of Rodgers and the Jets. Adams plays on the Raiders and have one of the hardest schedules this year. Wilson reminds me of a young Julio Jones. I still would have picked Adams here. This was a bold move, so we’ll see if it pays off for Andy or if it bites him in the butt. In Round 3 he went rookie running back Jaymr Gibbs. I read somewhere that rookie running backs drafted in the Top 12 picks of the NFL draft have gone on to finish as RB1’s (Top 12) in their rookie seasons. Andy is banking on that with the Gibbs pick for his RB1. We’ll have to see how the Lions split the work with David Montgomery. Khalil Herbert was able to rip the starting job away from Montgomery in Chicago last season. So he’s lost work to a more talented back before. Does it happen again? In Round 4 Andy got his RB2 in Aaron Jones. Jones finished as RB#9 last year with a 56% workload compared to AJ Dillon’s 44%. He was Aaron Rodgers favorite. He is getting up there in age for a RB, but look for the Packers to rely on the run while they work in Jordan Love into his new role as the franchise Qb. I liked what I saw in his limited preseason action. In Round 5 Andy went with Joe Burrow! A top 5 Fantasy Qb and the stack with Chase. Nice! Love the 10 point plays anytime they connect for a touchdown. In Round 6 Andy went with Diontae Johnson. Johnson gets a lot of targets, catches, and yards, but never touchdowns. I do think the Steelers are set up to do better this year. Little bit better offensive line. Little bit better schedule. Solid WR3. In Round 7 you took Dalvin Cook. Meh. He wasn’t very good last year. Breece Hall will cap his potential. If Hall misses time he’ll be a good starter for you. But I see him as most handcuff and less of a flex then most people. In Round 8 you took Javonte Williams. Williams is coming off of that devastating knee injury. 18.5% of players that have this type of knee injury return to their previous skill level. All reports have been positive and make it seem like Williams could increase that percentage. But look for him to start slow as they ease him back in. In Round 9 you took Marquise Brown. He was balling to start the year last year, but then the Cardinals fell apart. We’ll see if Kyler plays this year or not. That will be the key for Brown. In Round 10 you took Jamaal Williams. Great pick. Gives you a RB2/Flex to start the year. In Round 11 you took Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Top rated rookie in the 2023 class gets a pass happy Seahawks team. Don’t sleep on JSN now. In Round 12 you took your first tight end in Cole Kmet. He just isn’t good. I don’t get it. He finished TE#7 last year but only because he fell into the endzone a couple times at the end of the season. Liked the Sam LaPorta pick though. He should start and play right away for the Lions and replace TJ Hockenson role.

Draft Grade: B+. Tight End is rough, but solid core and depth. Andy is a contender.

Ben.

Austin Ekeler. #1 Fantasy RB last year. Helped Logan make it to the Super Bowl. He is capped a little bit in the lack of rushing volume, but his efficiency is just crazy. There were 8 games last year where he had 12 or less carries. But he scored 18 touchdowns and caught 107 passes on 127 targets. I like Ekeler to repeat as a Top 5 RB even with some touchdown regression. In Round 2 you went with CeeDee Lamb. I’m okay with this pick. Lamb is a beast. Finished as WR#6 last year. Brandin Cooks on the outside should help him find room in the middle. Dalton Schultz is gone. I see him repeating his Top 10 WR success from a year ago. In Round 3 you took Josh Allen. This bummed me out. I wanted Allen for the Allen-Diggs stack. Plus I yelled “Farm Strong!” at Allen at the celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe and he turned around and laughed. Solid trio to start in Allen-Ekeler-Lamb. In Round 4 you took Najee Harris. Harris is thunder to Jaylen Warren’s lightning. Warren could Tony Pollard Najee’s ass, but I don’t think it happens this season. The offensive line is better and the schedule is better, so I think Najee is an okay RB2. Will depend on his touchdown total on whether he was the better pick over Aaron Jones, Kenneth Walker, and Alexander Mattison. I would’ve taken those three over him personally. Round 5 you took DeAndre Hopkins. We’ll see how much he has left in the tank. Between Hopkins, Burks, and Chig Onkonwo the Titans have some very athletic pass catchers. Let’s see if Ryan Tannehill’s ankle is finally healed and if he can get his playmakers the ball. It’s an interesting pick and not one I would’ve made. In Round 6 you took Miles Sanders. Sanders was RB #13 last year for the Eagles and he won a lucrative contract to join Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers ran pretty good some weeks when Steve Wilks had taken over as the interim head coach so I like Sanders this year. I’m a little worried about the groin issue that has kept him out of most of the offseason program, but if he’s cleared he could repeat his Top 15 success. I liked him over Akers, Dobbins, and Cook, so good job. In Round 7 you took injured Terry McLaurin. Washington looked good and I’m bullish on Sam Howell this season (as evident of me taking a backup Qb in a 10 man league). But McLaurin has turf toe. These injuries can linger. He avoided IR, so we’ll see if it’s a 1 week or multiple week injury. In Round 8 you took Jeudy. Almost like you have a hurt wide receiver fetish or something. Three straight picks of players with injuries. Old Fashions, Chris Herron Documentaries, and players injured in the preseason. We’re finally learning more about the mysterious Ben Hogan as time goes on. In Round 9 he took D’Andre Swift ensuring his IR spots will be full this season. In Round 10 he took Evan Engram. He took a pair of Browns in Rounds 11 and 12 with Elijah Moore and David Njoku. Those were good value picks.

Draft Grade: D. Allen-Ekeler-Lamb is phenomenal. Great start. Then you tanked. Straight to the bottom. I have you in the Bottom and not contending for a title this season.

Josh.

Oh boy. Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. I hope your wedding goes smoother than this fantasy draft did for you because… whew! Just kidding (or am I?). In Round 1 you took Tyreek Hill. I love it! Great pick Josh! He has been vocal about his goal of getting 2000 yards receiving this season. Hill is just crazy enough to do it too. When he says that. I believe him. Loved this pick. Stop the count! Grade his draft now! A! Great job Josh! If only these drafts were one round, am I right? In Round 2 you took Josh Jacobs. Jacobs isn’t happy about being franchise tagged and was threatening to sit out since a long-term deal wasn’t reached. I don’t blame the guy, he set career highs last year in attempts (340), rushing yards (1653), receiving yards (400), average rush (4.9) and tied his high rushing touchdown number (12). Jacobs is a victim of the running back market. They have a short career and are highly replaceable. Jacobs put it all out there last season. Played hurt. Overcame adversity and put on dazzling performances including that 33 rush, 229-yard, 2 touchdown performance against the Seahawks in November. Once running backs get paid it’s not pretty. (See Le’Veon Bell, Ezekiel Elliot, Todd Gurley, etc.) Jacobs did end his holdout and report and they worked out a 1-year deal that is a little bit better than the franchise tag like similar to Saquon Barkley’s contract for this year. But Jacobs reported and looked a bit overweight if I’m being honest. And will he be willing to play through injury like he did last year? Now that the Raiders have shown their hand, should he risk injuring himself further for a team that might not be competing later in the season for a playoff spot with their brutal schedule this year? Over CeeDee Lamb, Davante Adams. Hell I would have preferred you go Jaylen Waddle and just rename your team the Miami Dolphins. Every offseason I crap on Josh Jacobs and then he balls out. Maybe that will happen again. Maybe. In Round 3 you went Deebo Samuel. I give up. This is the scene from Liar Liar when Jim Carrey is drinking water then spits it out and yelling “Come On!”. Last year he was mad about his contract because of the “wide-back” position he held in 2021. Then he got hurt. Then they traded for Christian McCaffrey. Auyik began to ascend. Deebo should be healthy this year, but what is his role? CMC took the wide-back. Kittle was catching the redzone TDs. Auyik was moving the sticks on 3^rd down. What’s left for Deebo? He does have the potential to take a screen pass to the house and this offseason he is reportedly looking very healthy. So, we’ll see. Over Metcalf and Higgins though. Lord. In Round 4 you went with Travis Etienne Jr. Tank Bisby is the backup and looks good, but I believe in Etienne. I think he’s a solid RB2 for you. I’m not buying the hype on Bisgby and see him more of a handcuff. Jags offense looks killer this year so solid pick Josh. In Round 5 you went Alvin Kamara. Suspended for 3 games, but the Saints have the easiest schedule this year. Not terrible. I would have gone Fields or Waller or Pierce or Herbert or someone else, but it won’t be as bad as a pick as people might suspect. In Round 6 you took George Kittle. Kittle is hurt. A lot. But when he played with Purdy last year he caught a lot of touchdowns. (To end the year last year he caught 7 touchdowns in 4 games). He took me out in the Best Buy league playoffs. Jerk. In Round 7 you took Christian Kirk. Kirk was WR#11 last year. But that was before the Jags added Calvin Ridley. Kirk is the slot wide receiver and so he’ll have value, but this preseason in two wr sets the Jags had Ridley and Zay Jones lined up. So if Kirk loses snap percentage that could hurt his ceiling even more then the fact that Ridley is there to steal catches and targets from him. I could see him being Top 30, but not Top 15 again. In Round 8 you reach for Tua Tagovailoa giving you the Tua-Tyreek stack. Nice. Like the stack, but not really how early you drafted him. In Round 9 you took Jakobi Meyers. Meyers might be the 4^th best pass catching option on a Raiders team with Jimmy G at Qb with the toughest schedule. Over Addison. Over Dotson. Over Burks. Over Flowers. Over Cooks. Stop the count. I can’t do it anymore.

Draft Grade: F. I hope I’m wrong. I want Josh to succeed in fantasy football. I’m sorry you were travelling during the draft and were probably beat down and tired. If there’s a consolation to my brutal grade it’s that your team has a lot of talent and is very explosive. You could manage this team. Trades, waiver, etc.

Logan.

Logan recovering from the asterisk bowl and the sick burn Brad dropped on the group text message the day before the draft. Comes in hot and takes the Prince that was Promised. Bijan Robinson. He played very limited action, but boy did he look good in it. Bijan Robinson, rookie out of Texas and newest addition to the Atlanta Falcons. Couple Bijan’s talent with Atlanta’s run first mentality, #2 easiest strength of schedule according to Warren Sharp, the wide-open NFC South, and their offseason additions on their defense and offensive line, I’m bullish on Bijan to waste no time in being a fantasy superstar. CMC was going in the 3^rd round of redraft his rookie season and he didn’t disappoint. Their previous starter Tyler Allgeier rushed admirably last season, breaking Atlanta’s rookie rushing record while ranking #2 in the NFL in EPA/attempt among all RBs with 100+ carries. Excerpt from Warren Sharps NFL Preview book, “Arthur Smith’s scheme last year allowed his Falcons RBs to rank: #1 in rushing yards, #1 yards per carry, #1 rushing first downs, #2 in EPA/rush, #3 in success rate.” They also drafted Matthew Bergeron in the 2^nd round who will most likely move to guard and was a much better run blocker than pass blocker at Syracuse. They also signed a ton of defensive free agents like Jessie Bates III (Safety), David Onuemata (DL), Kaden Ellis (LB), Calais Campbell (DL), Jeff Okudah (CB), and Bud Dupree (Edge). Arthur Smith is also sporting a mustache. He is going to pound the rock and play defense. Bijan can be a Top 5 fantasy running back. If he gets 275+ touches I believe he does just that. They will rotate a bit. But the potential is there. Great pick by Logan. In the 2^nd Round you went RB again with Derrick Henry. Henry is 29 years old and has lots of mileage on those tires. BUT. He’s a beast and he plays the Texans twice in the final three weeks including in the Fantasy Football Super Bowl. So if Logan can make it, can Henry be the one that brings home the title for him? In Round 3 you went Trip RB with Joe Mixon. Mixon is much better in games where the Bengals are ahead. He goes from Top 10 RB in those games to outside of the Top 25 when they are trailing. A huge discrepancy. But the Bengals are favored by an average of 5 points each of the first five weeks of the regular season, so not a bad RB3. In Round 4 he took his first WR in Cooper Kupp. Love the gutsy call here. Kupp was a Top 10 pick a couple weeks ago before a hamstring injury was re-aggravated and it went from bad to worse. He went to go see a specialist. According to Dr. Jamie Jakes on twitter/x he summarized it as “My translation/speculation: the way the injury occurred does not match up with a typical hamstring strain and or the hamstring is not responding to treatment the way a typical hammy strain does. My best guess it is a sciatic nerve issue that has been misdiagnosed as a hamstring strain. Best case scenario it’s something like piriformis syndrome and he’s back in a week. Worst case is a lumbar spine/disc issue that requires surgery and will likely end his season.” That is a big range of outcomes. We’ll see what the diagnosis is when the news drops. In Round 5 you took Justin Fields. LOVE IT. He saved my season last year after I traded for Lamar Jackson and he got injured. Fields exploded with over 1000 yards rushing. This offseason he gets an upgrade at Offensive Line and the addition of DJ Moore, which should help a lot. I like Fields to repeat his Top 10 Fantasy performance this year. You got good value in Mike Williams in Round 6. Williams is the #1 on a team that could explode this year. I’m bullish on the Chargers passing attack (as evident of me drafting Herbert). This gives you a solid WR1 if Cooper Kupp is out for a long time. In Round 7 you committed the Cardinal Sin of drafting Kyle Pitts, thus dooming your season. Pitts is very athletic. On a run-first team. With Drake London and Bijan Robinson and unproven Desmond Ridder at QB. Over Dallas Goedert. What a shame. What a shame. Tsk Tsk Tsk. In Round 8 you took Mike Evans “in case he gets traded”. I like it. Decent starter to throw in if Cooper is out. Baker sucks, but Evans has gotten 1000 yards in 9 straight seasons to start his career. Why wouldn’t they rally around that and try to make it 10? Especially if they aren’t competing in the NFC South this year. I liked it. Love Jordan Addison in Round 9. Takes Adam Thielen’s targets and rookie wide receivers have great back half of the years. His ceiling is capped by JJ and Hockenson but an injury to either of those two can propel him into WR2 territory. Decent depth building pieces in Pat Freiermuth, Zach Charbonnet, Jerick McKinnon.

Draft Grade: A. Your Rb-Rb-Rb strategy was bold. I like bold. Fields-Bijan-Henry-Mixon gives you an incredible floor to start the season. Mike Williams gives you a solid WR1. If Kupp’s injury is minor you are the favorite to win the super bowl. If it’s major I still think you can contend. Contender.

Michael.

Tony Pollard?!?! In this economy. This pick threw me off big time. I was expecting you to take Saquon or Chubb so I wasn’t prepared to choose between the two. Pollard was RB#7 last season and now Zeke is gone. Reminder that Zeke ran 231 times for 876 yards and 12 touchdowns last year. Mike McCarthy is also taking over play calling duties with Kellen Moore gone to LA and McCarthy has been vocal in his plans to run the ball more. All these factors spells “smash spot” for Tony Pollard. Only concern is the fact that he’s coming off a fractured left fibula. These injuries can take 3-6 months to heal. The injury occurred in January in the NFC Divisional playoff game against the 49ers. He was also a free agent heading into the offseason, but the Cowboys invested the franchise tag cost of 1 year $10 million dollar deal to keep Pollard on and unlike some other backs in the league he accepted it and signed. Almost a little too quickly. Hopefully the ankle healed up okay. The fibula isn’t as load bearing as the tibia. I knew drafting in the back of the draft it was paramount to grab at least 1 running back. I didn’t expect Mike to go with Pollard, but he secured his RB1 and I’m okay with that. In Round 2 he went AJ Brown. Loved AJB. AJB caught career best 88 catches, 1496 yards, and 11 touchdowns in his first season as an Eagle. This included WR1 (Top 12) or WR2(Top 24) finishes in 12 out of 17 weeks last year. He helped me win a championship. Funny thing that Brad went Diggs and Mike went AJB is that last year Mike had traded Logan for Diggs and Brad had AJB. So in essence this year they swapped. I digress. Excellent start to get a RB1 and WR1. In Round 3 Mike took Mark Andrews. Although I traded for Andrews the last two years I was down on him coming into this season. I think Monken is going to pass more. But they added Zay Flowers and Odell Beckham Jr. And Mark Andrews got injured in the preseason. This has me concerned and I dropped him in my rankings. I was relieved when Mike took him, because I wanted Waller in the 5th, but I didn’t think he would fall to me. More on that later. Mike then went Calvin Ridley in the 4^th. He has been getting so much hype this offseason. The 28-year-old who will be playing his first ball in almost two years after having an injured riddled fourth season then being suspended all last season for betting on games. Ridley did finish as PPR WR #5 back in 2020 in his third season/breakout year. My concern is the crowded weaponry in Jacksonville as much as the rust that may need to be shaken off. Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, and Evan Engram all had career seasons last year for Jacksonville. I don’t know how the target share and production is going to be sliced up this year which is cause for concern. But I do think Ridley is the #1 and I think he’s a solid WR2 for Michael. In Round 5 you went Christian Watson. Watson has all the makings of a great wide receiver. The only question mark is Love. Seeing Love play in preseason has me more bullish on the Packers then I was. He looked efficient and sharp. Watson could have as much as of a sophomore leap as Olave who went 3 rounds earlier. Could be a big time pick for Michael. In Round 6 he took T-LAW. Trevor Lawrence-Calvin Ridley stack is what I did in Best Buy league. Going to be fun as the Jags have a favorable schedule and should repeat as AFC South Division Winners. I expect Lawrence to set career highs in passing yards and touchdowns. In Round 7 you sniped me by taking Rachaad White. White is going to get volume. The concern is the offensive line and Baker Mayfield. But White did well as a rookie. Leonard Fournette was there and took a lot of work in the passing game at the end of the season, but White should recoup those snaps with Brady and Fournette both gone. Checking down will be Baker’s specialty this season. In Round 8 you took Brandon Auyik. Auyik was WR#15 last year. That might surprise some people, but with Deebo injured for a lot of the season Purdy looked to Brandon to move the sticks. Deebo is fully healthy, so I don’t know if Aiyuk regresses or if he is there to stay, but great value. Round 9 you sniped me again! Jahan Dotson. I have a bold prediction that he will catch 12 touchdowns this season. (If you place a season long bet on that and it cashes make sure to send me a few bucks). I’m bullish on the Commanders passing attack (as evident of me selecting Sam Howell late). In Round 10 Mike went back to back Commanders with Brian Robinson Jr. In half ppr I had Gibson ranked higher, but I get wanting to get a starter as one of your backups. In Round 11 you took Jaylen Warren. Good handcuff with flex potential. Round 12 Tank Bigsby. Another handcuff. Lots of backup running backs.

Draft Grade: B. Solid team. Reached for Pollard, little concerned about Andrews, but lots of depth at RB and WR, which is where it matters. Having 3 Top 15 WR is in the range of outcomes here.

Brad.

Back-to-Back Champion seeking the coveted Three-Peat. It’s never been done before. There’s only been two other chances for it to happen at all in our 22 previous seasons. Wade in 2017 and Michael in 2020. Can Brad do it in 2023? Probably not. In the 1^st round he wanted to secure a top RB and he went with Saquon Barkley. Barkley was RB#6 last year and the Giants look to repeat as a playoff team with the addition of Darren Waller. The deciding factor for taking Barkley over Chubb was Barkley’s 76 targets and 57 receptions in his first season in this offense. We’ll see if it works out. In Round 2 Brad went with Stefon Diggs. Pretty good. 29 years old coming off ppr wr finishes of #4, #7 and #3. As Allen goes, Diggs goes. Of course, I’ll never forgive him for the Minnesota Miracle. I already hate the pick and regret it. But it gives me a solid RB1-WR1 to start. In Round 3 I was tested with another tough choice. DK Metcalf or Tee Higgins. Wind up going Metcalf due to favorable early season schedule, positive touchdown regression probabilities, and because he’s a manimal. There’s a funny video online of players reading the NFL script for this season and he reads that he’s going to have a no handed catch when he catches it with his abs. It’s pretty funny if you haven’t seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlNDNrfwZr0

In the 4^th round Brad took Rhamondre Stevenson as his RB2. Stevenson is coming off of his RB#11 finish. Damien Harris is replaced by the ghost of Ezekiel Elliot. I wasn’t concerned about the Zeke signing, but I was concerned about the schedule. I went with Rhamonster due to his 69 receptions a year ago as I see him able to repeat that success this year. The core of Barkley-Rhamondre-Diggs-Metcalf is solid. In Rounds 5 and 6 Brad continued his balance build approach with Darren Waller and Justin Herbert. Waller looks like he might have 150 targets from Daniel Jones this season. All offseason Jones has been peppering him with targets. To the point where a beat writer had said that they took Waller out of practice for a few drives, not because he was hurt or winded, but because they wanted to see Daniel Jones throw to somebody else. I bought into the hype and I was thrilled he fell to me in the 5^th round as I have him finishing as TE#2 behind Travis Kelce this season. For Herbert, I see Kellen Moore as the key to unlock Herberts potential. They are going to throw it deep. I think Ekeler sees regression in terms of rushing touchdowns and Herbert sees positive regression in terms of passing touchdowns. Last year he was hurt with a lingering and painful rib injury. He should be healed up and ready to go for his 4^th season. Look for Herbert to lead the league in passing yards this season. (My bold prediction). In Round 7 after Mike took White I was stuck. Since I went with a balanced approach and had my Qb, Rb1, Rb2, Wr1, Wr2, TE I had the flexibility to absorb the risk associated with Johnathan Taylor. Obviously, Taylor means a lot to me given our 2021 season success together, but I understand that this could be 100% a dud pick. JT is hurt, disgruntled. It’s not good. The hope is that he plays for the minimum games to accrue a season towards the franchise tag OR that he gets traded prior to the deadline to a better team. I’m not alone in wanting to see what Anthony Richardson and JT could do together, but it’s looking more and more likely like that won’t happen. High risk pick in the middle of the rounds that could cost Brad big time or secure him a deadly flex play later. In Round 8 I doubled up on Herbert with Khalil. The Browns have a VERY favorable schedule down the stretch. Herbert is better than D’Onta Foreman and Roschon Johnson. The questions are: can he stay healthy? And how much does Justin Fields take away? In Round 9 Brad took Treylon Burks. Burks has the potential to break out this year in his sophomore season much like Olave and Watson. Burks dropped due to a minor LCL sprain, but he’s already back practicing. If he misses only a couple weeks it gives Brad a decent WR3/Flex play. In Round 10 I went with Brandin Cooks. Cooks on the Cowboys sounded good to me. He’s like DJ Moore, gets 1000 yards receiving a few touchdowns on any team he goes on. Just cheaper. In Round 11 I went AJ Dillon. Dillon came on strong when the weather got cold for the Packers last year. Handcuff mostly, but we’ll see if Brad turns to him at some point in the season if he is battling through injuries. Justin Tucker in the 12^th round. Ridiculous. I didn’t like anyone here so I reached on a kicker. Stupid. Missed out on decent RB depth like Bigsby, McKinnon, Gainwell. What an idiot.

Draft Grade: B. Could have been an A. But you had to get cocky and reach for a kicker. Stupid.

Max.

Max drafting from the 10 spot. Meaning each time he picked we ALL passed on every single one of his players at least once. Ultimate ability to rub it in our faces if any of them go off this season. At the Round 1 and 2 turn he went with Nick Chubb and Amon-Ra St. Brown. Love it. Chubb is the best pure runner in football and Kareem Hunt who was siphoning off 3^rd down and hurry offense snaps is GONE. Amon-Ra is a target machine. I expect big things out of the Sun God this season. I had AJ Brown ranked higher, but I get it. In Round 3 and 4 you had Tee Higgins drop to you. You also selected Lamar Jackson. Higgins would be a WR1 on at least ten teams in the league and this is a contract year for him. Look for big things out of Tee. Lamar could realistically win MVP again this season. Todd Monken is designing an offense with Lamar, side by side. They added Odell. Zay Flowers. Bateman is back. Look out. In Round 5 and 6 you took DJ Moore and Dameon Pierce. Moore took a wobbly screen pass with a broken play on defense to the house in preseason and jettisoned himself up the rankings. Prior to last season Moore was an automatic for 1100 yards receiving and I think he can get there again. Does he bring the career high 7 touchdowns with him? Or does that regress to his average of 4 each year? Still good for a flex. Pierce should be a workhorse and he graded very well in breaking tackles last season. I think this a solid RB2 for Max. In Rounds 7 and 8 you got good value in Drake London and Dallas Goedert. I passed on London because I worry about the lack of pass volume in Atlanta. The hope is he scores a bunch of touchdowns, but with Bijan and Tyler Ageier I think Arthur Smith is going to pound it. Not a bad depth WR to throw in. Goedert is on a great offense. But his volume is a concern. Better TE then most in the league, but I would still expect more boom or bust weeks out of him. Rounds 9 and 10 you took Zay Flowers to stack with Lamar and Samaje Perine. Perine I like. They invested him in the offseason with Williams coming back from that knee injury. Solid RB depth piece for you. Loved Tyler Algeier in Round 11. Odell in Round 12 is fun. I don’t think you’ll use him, but who knows maybe he gets hot for a stretch. Overall exceptional job with drafting.

Draft Grade: A. Max did a great job picking players that dropped to him. This gives him a solid core, good depth, and makes him a contender this season.

Draft Grades in Draft Order:

Stephen: A
Caleb: C+
Quentin: D+
Andy: B+
Ben: D
Josh: F
Logan: A
Michael: B
Brad: B
Max: A

Draft Grades in Grade Order with Tiers:

Contenders:

Stephen: A
Max: A
Logan: A

Can Compete:

Andy: B+
Michael: B
Brad: B
Caleb: C+

Better Luck Next Year:

Quentin: D+
Ben: D
Josh: F

I hope you all enjoyed and best of luck to you this season!

-Brad

BBY Dream Team League Season 15 Draft Grades

August 22, 2023August 22, 2023 bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL, Quarterbacks, Rankings, Wide Receivers Fantasy Football, Mike Evans, NFL, Preview

BBY Dream Team League 2023-2024 Season #15!

Before we dive into draft grades, I’d like to take a second to look at where we’ve been. In the 14 years of the BBY Dream Team League the Championships have been a bit top heavy, with 3 players holding 9 titles. Mustafa “Moose” Sunka has 4 Titles. Chase Sims has 3 Titles. Yours Truly has 2 Titles. Then there are five teams with 1 title. Joe Weiser in Season #5, Scotty Gwatney in Season #6, Trey Hewitt in Season #9, Kenny Williams in Season #12, and of course our newest and reigning champion of Season #14, JD Smith! Of course, that means there are several members that have yet to win their first title. Mike Grote, Jen LeGlue, Katon Bethay, and Tommy Plemons are the four teams on the outside looking in. Could this be the year? Katon drafted at Pick #2, Jen at Pick #3, Tommy at Pick #5, and Mike at Pick #9.

Here is the Draft Position of Each Champion:

Brad- Pick #1
Moose- Pick #3
Brad- Pick #9
Chase- Pick #4
Joe- Pick #1
Scotty- Pick #4
Moose- Pick #12
Chase- Pick #1
Trey- Pick #4
Moose- Pick #11
Moose- Pick #11
Kenny- Pick #6
Chase- Pick #6
JD- Pick #3

The past is in the past. As the great Rafiki says in Lion King, “It doesn’t matter…it’s in the past!”

Let’s move on to Season #15 and see how Brad thinks you did on your draft this season.

Annual Disclaimer: Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. This is my opinion. Last year JD received a draft grade of “C” and was ranked #9/12. He finished #1, which is all that matters. (Of course I had the other 5 playoff teams grades with B- or better with Mustafa (A), Chase (B+), Brad (B+), Tommy (B-) and Mike (B-) also making the playoffs with draft grades of 1, 3, 4, 5, 6. So really I was very wrong about Kenny (A-) and JD (C), but most of my grades weren’t that bad. Let’s see how I do this year!

Pick #1: Trey

Trey with the odd back-to-back years with #1 pick. Last year it was an automatic selection, Johnathan Taylor. Just click send. It blew up in Trey’s face. This year it was an automatic selection, Justin Jefferson. Just click send. Trey did not. Instead he chose Bijan Robinson, rookie out of Texas and newest addition to the Atlanta Falcons. Couple Bijan’s talent with Atlanta’s run first mentality, #2 easiest strength of schedule according to Warren Sharp, the wide-open NFC South, and their offseason additions on their defense and offensive line, I’m bullish on Bijan to waste no time in being a fantasy superstar. CMC was going in the 3^rd round of redraft his rookie season and he didn’t disappoint. Their previous starter Tyler Allgeier rushed admirably last season, breaking Atlanta’s rookie rushing record while ranking #2 in the NFL in EPA/attempt among all RBs with 100+ carries. Excerpt from Warren Sharps NFL Preview book, “Arthur Smith’s scheme last year allowed his Falcons RBs to rank: #1 in rushing yards, #1 yards per carry, #1 rushing first downs, #2 in EPA/rush, #3 in success rate.” They also drafted Matthew Bergeron in the 2^nd round who will most likely move to guard and was a much better run blocker than pass blocker at Syracuse. They also signed a ton of defensive free agents like Jessie Bates III (Safety), David Onuemata (DL), Kaden Ellis (LB), Calais Campbell (DL), Jeff Okudah (CB), and Bud Dupree (Edge). Arthur Smith is also sporting a mustache. He is going to pound the rock and play defense. Bijan can be a Top 5 fantasy running back. If he gets 275+ touches I believe he does just that. They will rotate a bit. But the potential is there. BUT to draft him you passed on Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Christin McCaffrey, Austin Ekeler, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce. Jefferson led the NFL in both catches with 128 and receiving yards with 1,809 last season. He was the youngest player in NFL history to lead the league in both. He is 24. He is an LSU guy. And I’m bullish on the Vikings offense this season. I love a little spice, so we’ll see how this works out for Trey. No one will question the size of Trey’s nuts although they may question the size of his brain.

In the second round Trey took Chris Olave and DK Metcalf. Olave is in a smash spot this season. Favorable schedule, Derek Carr should be as good if not better than Andy Dalton. Solid WR1. Metcalf I believe will finish about where he did last year. I think he’s due for some positive touchdown regression, but the addition of JSN will hurt his targets, receptions, and yardage totals. I had Devonta Smith higher in my rankings than Metcalf.

In the 4^th and 5^th Trey went DJ Moore and Justin Fields. Not gonna lie, makes for a pretty sick squad. Fields is a Qb/Rb. Bijan is a Rb/WR. Olave-Metcalf-Moore is a solid trio of wideouts. Fields rushed for 1143 yards and 8 touchdowns last year. Moore took a wobbly screen pass with broken play on defense to the house in preseason and jettisoned himself up the rankings. Prior to last season Moore was an automatic for 1100 yards receiving and I think he can get there again. Does he bring the career high 7 touchdowns with him? Or does that regress to his average of 4 each year? Still good for a flex.

Trey took JK Dobbins and Dalvin Cook for his second and third running backs. I was torn between Montgomery and Dobbins and ultimately chose Montgomery. Dobbins lasted a full 10 picks later to Trey. His knee looks bad. We will see if those weird bumps have gone down or not. I like the Ravens this season, so we’ll see what he can do. Dalvin Cook isn’t a bad RB3. I don’t think he goes as crazy as people think this season, but if Hall winds up with a soft tissue injury and misses some games then Dalvin could have some good startable weeks.

Loved Trey’s pick of Zay Flowers. Jamaal Williams wasn’t bad for RB depth either. Geno Smith provides Qb depth in the event of an injury and has the Geno/DK stack option.

Draft Grade: C. I like Bijan a lot. Looking forward to trying his mustard. But this was a swing for the fence move after being burned last year. JJ is the best WR in football. Could’ve started JJ-Rhamondre-Olave. Still gotten Fields-Moore. And the rest of the group. Is the dropoff from JJ to Metcalf worth the difference of Bijan and Rhamondre Stevenson? Let’s check back at the end of the year. Will it be no? Or an emphatic yes? I’ll give a C.

Pick #2: Katon

I’m assuming Katon was ready to draft Ja’Marr Chase after Trey took Justin Jefferson and just automatically hit select even though Trey didn’t take JJ. Not sure why someone would take Chase over JJ. Minnesota’s defense sucks, which means Vikings are looking to be in a large quantity of shootouts. JJ had more targets, catches, and yards than Chase last season. Chase did miss a few games after he injured his hip celebrating a touchdown. Also, in the offseason it was reported that Chase has a woman stalker who is threatening him and his mother causing him to file a restraining order. They hooked up one night and he wind up with a stage five clinger situation as a result. Must’ve laid a hell of a pipe. This might also explain the broken hip last year. I digress. In Round 2 Katon went with Patrick Mahomes. What a solid player. Just start him and forget about it. I could argue about Player Value Rankings and say it was a bad pick. I could argue that a running Qb like Hurts would have been better, but Mahomes is a stud and he is fun to root for. He just makes plays. In Round 3 you got your starting Rb in Joe Mixon, doubling up on the Bengals. Mixon had a tumultuous offseason. Court hearings and rumors swirling about him potentially being cut. Ultimately the cut that happened was him accepting a pay cut to play with the Bengals again this season. He is still on the roster and was cleared of any wrongdoing on the court matter. He’s good to go. In Round 4 you went target hog TJ Hockenson. Like it. Solid. The addition of Jordan Addison might cut into his target share a bit, but again I’m bullish on this passing attack and I can see them putting on a show most weeks. In Round 5 you took James Conner. I had Walker and Mattison ranked higher, but I understand if you wanted to ensure volume. It’s just volume on a bad team. But volume is volume for a running back! Good values in Round 6 and 7 with Terry McLaurin and Isaih Pacheco. A #1 WR with a young stud in Sam Howell throwing him the ball. Isaih Pacheco runs angry and I look forward to seeing what he brings to his sophomore season. Last year I woke up at like 5:00am pacific time and couldn’t sleep. Saw some news about Chiefs Running backs while sitting on the can. I quickly picked up Pacheco and immediately got a text at 5:14am from Chase saying he clicked add at the exact same time. Actually what he said was “You fucking beat me to it”. He served me well last year and you’ll like him as a Rb Katon. I liked your picks of Michael Pittman and Samaje Perine. Everyone is down on Pittman this year. They are throwing around stats about rookie Qbs not having their WR’s finish as a top 15 WR in fantasy. It doesn’t happen. Pretty weird. But for a depth piece he’s a big target and let’s see if he gets a decent amount of touchdowns. Perine I loved. Javonte Williams knee recovery is miraculous. Players that tear their ACL, PCL, and LCL have only an 18.5% chance of returning to their previous talent level. Williams appears to have done it. But Payton loves to rotate backs. Perine will get a decent amount of work and Williams is at risk of soft tissue injuries which is common for players coming off of ACL injuries. Most of your depth players are throw aways but I liked your Jared Goff pick in Round 15. Dude has a chance to ball out this year.

Draft Grade: B-. Overall it’s not a pretty team, but there is no weakness per se. 3 RB1’s, 3 WR1’s. Not bad Katon. Not Bad.

Pick #3: Jen

The Fantasy God’s parted the clouds and beamed sunshine down to Jen’s third overall pick. For the second year in a row she gets Justin Jefferson. Last year she traded JJ for Daniel Jones, Aaron Jones, and Gabe Davis. This year I have a feeling she’ll hold on to the manimal that led the league in catches and receiving yards. In Round 2 she went with Travis Etienne Jr. I hated this pick. Etienne will be fine, but passing on Olave and Devonta Smith… then choosing Etienne over Rhamondre Stevenson. Etienne has more of a threat to lose touches to rookie Tank Bigsby than Rhamondre has to lose to Zeke Elliot. In the 3^rd round you got Tee Higgins so that’s good. Tee is on a contract year and would be the #1 WR on at least 10 teams in the league. This year he has Burrow slinging to him, so look for his normal WR#2 (Top 24) finish. In Round 4 you took Darren Waller. Waller has been flying up draft boards. All offseason word out of Giants camp is Jones is throwing to Waller nonstop. A sideline reporter said they pulled Waller out of practice one day not because he was hurt but because they wanted to see Daniel Jones throw to other players. Then in the Week 2 preseason game the starters played and Jones targeted Waller on 3 straight passes to start the drive and targeted him again a few plays later. Daniel Bellinger vultured the touchdown, but Waller has a path to finish as TE#2 this year if he can stay healthy. I like the bold, flag plant pick here. In Round 5 you took Javonte Williams. Williams would be a 2^nd round pick if he wasn’t coming off of injury. All reports this summer have said he’s back. He’s healthy. He looks great. If he starts off slow that’s okay, but he has the potential to be a steal in Round 5. I probably would have gone Mattison or Kenneth Walker here, but I tend to play more conservative (no wonder I haven’t won since 2011). In Round 6 you got your Qb in Deshaun Watson. The Rub and Tug All Star should have a solid season in his first full season of being a Browns starting Qb. We’ll see if he can reclaim his all-star status like when he was balling out for the Texans a few years ago. In Round 7 you got a decent RB depth piece in AJ Dillon. Jordan Love is QB in Green Bay and they may look to run the ball more. Last season Aaron Jones stole the show, but Dillon carved out a respectable role at the end of the season once it got cold. They went more bruiser rather than slice and dice. The split was 56% Aaron Jones and 44% AJ Dillon. Could it be closer to 50/50 this year? Decent fliers and depth pieces throughout the rest of the draft.

Draft Grade: B+. The concern is Running Backs health and volume, but most teams have that issue this year. The JJ-Higgins-Waller combo is going to be a nice floor and the AJ Dillon + GB D/ST could be sneaky good. Well done Jen!

Pick#4: Joe

Joe you son of a bitch. Love you. Christian McCaffrey was a solid selection for me last year at Pick #2. I received some shit for it, but he went back to his solid ass balling out self. Yes Elijah Mitchell might carve out some runs, but CMC gives you one of the best RB1’s in the game with a good floor (due to his receptions) and incredible ceiling (due to him being able to break one at any moment). Solid selection Joe! In Round 2 you took Jaylen Waddle. Excellent pick again. I don’t think people understand how good Waddle is and how great of a fit he is in Mike McDaniels offense. Tyreek Hill being there kind of overshadows him a bit. He was PPR WR#8 last year in his sophomore season. He’s 24 years old. And he had some monster plays last year. In Round 3 you took Aaron Jones. I agree on you taking a RB. I disagree on the RB. Last year I took CMC in the first and Aaron Jones in the 3^rd. Rodgers preferred to have Jones on the field with him. I don’t think I’ve seen many rankers have Jones over Rhamondre Stevenson. You also took him over Mark Andrews, DeVonta Smith. I don’t know. I’m not sure about Aaron Jones at cost this year, but we’ll see. If GB does run more and he maintains his 56/44 snap percentage then maybe he can repeat and have a top 10 Rb season again. We’ll see. In Round 4 you took Joe “Big Dick” Burrow. Little calf strain never hurt anybody. Burrow-CMC-Jones-Waddle. In Round 5 you took your third RB over your second WR. You took Alexander Mattison. Evan Silva placed a large bet on Mattison to win the rushing title with 40:1 odds. To quote the big dog himself, “Alexander Mattison inherits Dalvin Cook’s workhorse role after re-signing a two-year, $7 million deal, 91% of which is guaranteed. Mattison possesses prototypical feature back size (5-foot-11/ 221) and has been treated commensurately by Vikings coaches in past opportunities to spell Cook; Mattison’s touch counts in his past five starts were 24, 32, 32, 25, and 16. Last year, Mattison outplayed Cook on a one-to-one basis, finishing 16^th in PFF rushing grade compared to Cook’s 64^th overall placement… I’m willing to draft Mattison aggressively above his ADP this season.” Mattison has had a small injury this offseason and Vikings have been rumored to want to sign another back for depth, but it sure looks like Mattison is in line for a Top 15 RB season. This gives Joe a 3 headed RB monster, something only a few teams have this year in this league. In Round 6 you took Kyle Pitts. For me he isn’t worth it. Once the top Tight Ends go my strategy was to wait. The Falcons just don’t throw that much. Ridder doesn’t look that accurate. Pitts just isn’t worth a Round 6 pick. In Round 7 you took Christian Kirk. Kirk as your WR2 is worrisome. Yes Kirk was WR #12 last year. No Kirk will not finish as a Top 15 WR this year. Calvin Ridley is in town. In the preseason the Jags lined up Ridley and Zay Jones in two WR sets. Kirk is the slot receiver. The snap count and multitude of weapons in Jacksonville are going to hurt Kirk’s consistency and floor and make him more difficult to start. This will also hurt his ceiling. In Round 8 you made up for the Kirk pick with Jahan Dotson. I was super high on Dotson and I almost ran out of time on my pick because I didn’t know whether to take Drake London or Dotson. I was taking Gibson, so I didn’t want to double up on Commanders. London is the #1 WR where as Dotson was a #2. I ultimately chose London, which gave Joe a solid WR#2. Start Dotson over Kirk this season. You’ll thank me later. I also loved the Treylon Burks pick in Round 9 and Elijah Mitchell pick in Round 10. Decent picks to end the draft.

Draft Grade: B. Solid Joe. Didn’t care for Aaron Jones over Rhamondre. Didn’t care for Kirk pick. The Tight End position is going to piss you off all season. But you should compete.

Pick #5: Tommy

I knew Tommy was picking Ekeler. I wrote it down prior to the draft. Ekeler took Tommy out last year in the Super Bowl and he was going to ensure it didn’t happen again. I don’t hate it. The entire backfield is about the same as last year and the Offense Coordinator got better. I like Ekeler to repeat as a Top 5 RB this season. In the 2^nd Round you took Josh Jacobs. Jacobs isn’t happy about being franchise tagged and is threatening to sit out since a long-term deal wasn’t reached. I don’t blame the guy, he set career highs last year in attempts (340), rushing yards (1653), receiving yards (400), average rush (4.9) and tied his high rushing touchdown number (12). Jacobs is a victim of the running back market. They have a short career and are highly replaceable. Jacobs put it all out there last season. Played hurt. Overcame adversity and put on dazzling performances including that 33 rush, 229-yard, 2 touchdown performance against the Seahawks in November. Once running backs get paid it’s not pretty. (See Le’Veon Bell, Ezekiel Elliot, Todd Gurley, etc.) We’ll see if the two sides can come to an agreement soon. A rumor dropped yesterday saying he was going to show up to play in Week 1. Then I saw he commented saying the comment was bullshit. Then he deleted the comment. In these situations I think Jacobs played the good teammate part last year playing through injury. He does not do that this year. If he has a slight bump or bruise he’s sitting. This is not a great pick for Tommy in my opinion. High risk high reward, but in the 2^nd round with so much talent available. It’s a shame (in Gordon Ramsey’s voice). In Round 3 he took Najee Harris. Ensuring those in the back of the draft were pissed off at 0 running backs falling back to them. Harris should do better this year than his bust year last year. Last year was obvious he was going to bust and he busted. This year the offensive line is improved and he is not dealing with a foot injury like last offseason. His only threat is Jaylen Warren who continues to carve out a little role for himself. But Harris finished the season strong last year with Top 18 RB finishes in PPR in each of the last 6 weeks. In Round 4 Tommy finally took a WR. (I had 3 at this point of the draft). Hopkins is talented and has fingers longer than my torso, but he is 31 in a run-first offense. When Treylon Burks comes back to full strength I don’t see Hopkins being the player he used to be for the Texans. He has the ability to finish as a Top 24 WR, but I don’t see him cracking the Top 12 to be considered a “WR1”. In Round 5 you took Jerry Jeudy. Jeudy is a baller and he could breakout in his first season with Sean Payton. Jeudy has had a few injuries, but when he’s on the field he plays great. In the final 6 weeks last season he finished as a WR 1 or 2 in 4/6 weeks. That includes his Week 14 Wide Receiver #1 ranking when he caught 3 touchdowns against the Chiefs. We’ll see what he can do this season and if Sean Payton can squeeze blood out of the Russel Wilson turnip or not. In Round 6 you took big Mike Williams. Between the three wrs you took you should have enough to compete. In Round 7 you took Captain Kirk. Cousins is entering his Age 35 season and is in a contract year. They added Jordan Addison in the offseason and their defense is in shambles. Look for Cousins to repeat his QB8 performance from last season. You took Evan Engram for TE but also drafted Dalton Kincaid later. Solid.

Draft Grade: C. You went 3 rbs to start the draft then didn’t draft a single one after that. One of those three might not play. And if he does play he’s probably going be more cautious. Your team is weird and I don’t like it.

Pick #6: Scotty

Good to see a real human draft Scotty’s team this year! Scotty went Tyreek Hill in Round 1. Love it. Hill has verbally put it out there that he wants 2000 yards this season. The crazy cheetah might just have the talent to do it too. Loved this pick. In Round 2 you went Johnathan Taylor. Yikes. I get wanting to draft a RB and this was a big high risk/high reward type pick. But man. Still having ankle issues. Trying to get traded out of Indy because he’s still on his rookie deal. We’ll see if he gets traded, but even then I don’t see his situation getting that much better. Maybe he gets traded. Maybe the ankle will finally heal. Maybe he returns to 2021 version of himself. That’s too many maybes for me big dog. You should’ve just drafted Waddle since you got Tua later and just went all in on the Dolphins passing attack lol. In Round 3 you made up for it with Rhamondre Stevenson. You don’t see a Top 12 RB fall to the middle of Round 3 when his competition for carries has gotten worse. Maybe Zeke takes a few goal line carries. Okay. Rhamondre finished with 69 receptions last season. He was Top 12 with only 6 touchdowns. People are stupid. Great pick Scotty. In Round 4 you took Alvin Kamara. We’ll see how much he has in the tank when he comes back from suspension. In Round 5 you took Miles Sanders. Somehow you took 4 running backs in your first 5 rounds and you STILL might not have a RB2 for Week 1. JT might not play. Sanders has a hurt groin and might not play. Kamara is suspended. Great depth for mid and late season, but this is borderline hilarious. Hopefully something works out for your for week 1. In Round 6 you were handed a wonderful gift. Christian Watson falling two rounds later in ADP for no fucking reason at all. You LOVE to see it. Your WR2 might finish better than all of Tommy’s WRs. You did a decent job filling our your roster with Dallas Goedert, Marquise Brown. Got a couple of decent Qbs to choose in Dak and Tua. Got Rhamondre’s backup in Zeke.

Draft Grade: C+. You got docked a letter grade for drafting JT. You got docked another letter grade for drafting 4 Qb’s. I know we aren’t supposed to say this word anymore, but are you retarded?

Pick #7: JD

The Champ! All Hail King JD! You went Saquon Barkley. I get it. RBs were going, you liked him more than Henry and Chubb. I get it. I would have gone Kelce personally, but I understand it. In round 2 you took Davante Adams. I got to go to a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe last month. Got real close to Adams. He’s skinnier in real life, but well dressed and has a decent golf shot. Also Darren Waller is gone. Last year Adams proved it doesn’t matter who is QB is as he set career highs in targets and yards per catch. Jimmy G isn’t a downgrade or an upgrade from Derek Carr. Solid RB1 and WR1 to start the draft. In Round 3 you took DeVonta Smith. Shit I don’t blame you. Guy has a 2^nd round ADP and lasts until 3.7? All day. You have the second best WR duo in the league. 😉. In Round 4 you took your RB2 in Rachaad White. Everybody was reaching for RBs at this point. I don’t know if any of us reached on the right one. I think the order of Pierce, White, Conner, Mattison, Walker, and Sanders is going to be Pierce, Mattison, Walker, Sanders, White, and Conner. So I don’t agree with your reach. He doesn’t have much backfield competition. The offense is going to be worse than last year without Brady. I understand the reach. I just don’t know if it was for the right player. In Round 5 you took Kenneth Walker. Great pick. I thought about him over Pierce in Round 4, so you getting him at 5.7 is an incredible value. People were worried about his injury this preseason but he’s already back practicing. Let him ball out. George Kittle in Round 6 wasn’t bad. Purdy liked him a lot. That was evident by Kittle’s insane 7 touchdowns in the last 4 games of the regular season. I don’t think he keeps that up, but what if he does? In Round 9 you took your starting Qb in Daniel Jones. He finished as Qb#10 last year and added Darren Waller and Jaylin Hyatt. Great freaking pick.

Draft Grade: B. Don’t care for the bench at all, but if the starters stay healthy this team can compete.

Pick #8: Chase

These assholes really let Kelce fall to pick #8 eh? Chase scoops up the player that you can play in the tight end spot that scores at a Top 5 RB pace. While us peasants are hoping our tight ends fall into the endzone for 6 points Chase will get an average of 16.4 per game. GOD DAMNIT. PLAYER VALUE RANKINGS PEOPLE! I got to see Kelce shotgun a beer while playing golf in Lake Tahoe. A fan was talking shit to him saying he isn’t TE one. Kelce goes “Oh yeah, who’s number 1. Who’s number 1?” The fan mumbles “Kittle”. Little Niners fan. Kelce just nods. “Kittle is pretty good. Pretty good.” Then he hit the shit out of the ball onto the par 3 green. In Round 2 Chase goes with CeeDee Lamb. CeeDee was WR#6 last year. I still remember when the Falcons drafted a cornerback over him HAHAHAHA. Falcons suck. CeeDee’s target competition is about the same. Dalton Schultz is gone and they added Brandin Cooks. Look for a similar Top 8 WR finish this year. In Round 3 Chase shocked the free world going QB rather than his first RB. He selected Josh Allen over Jalen Hurts which I thought was interesting. Hurts averaged more per game than Allen and would have been QB#1 if he hadn’t gotten hurt at the end of last season. Word on the street is the Bills want Allen to pass more. We’ll see if it actually happens. I would have gone Hurts over Allen personally. Or maybe Gibbs. Or Andrews. Probably Gibbs then Hurts for me. In Round 4 Chase took Amari Cooper. Solid WR2 for Chase here. I almost took him at the turn but my gut told me to take Calvin Ridley. I don’t know why. Chase got his first RB in Round 5 with Captain James Cook. Cook looks like he could be a steal in Round 5. His competition is Damien Harris who is injured and Latavius Murray who is somehow still in the league. Cook will have every opportunity to smash his ADP this season. A big free agent signing would be the only thing I can see derailing the value of this pick. Like a Hunt or Uncle Lenny who are still out there in the free agent waters. In Round 6 he took his RB#2 in Khalil Herbert. Herbert was better than David Montgomery last year. I don’t know why people think Roschon or D’Onta Foreman is going to be able to beat him out. If Herbert can continue to take the bear share of the rb load the Bears schedule at the end of the season could make this pick a league winner. In Round 7 Chase got great value in Brandon Auyik. WR#17 last year getting drafted after Christian Kirk and George Pickens. In Round 8 you went Courtland Sutton. Then you began Operation Running Back. Going 4 straight RBs. I remember at one point I had a couple of RBS queued up and then they were gone when it was my turn to pick. Both went to Chase. He fired off Zach Charbonnet (great team name opportunity), Jaylen Warren (continues to look more explosive than Najee Harris), Tank Bigsby (could carve out role from Etienne), and Tyjae “No Knees” Spears (backing up 29 year old Derrick Henry and has looked explosive this offseason). Old Chase went zero RB and yet his RB depth looks just fine to me.

Draft Grade: A. Chase is better at this than us. Legit chance at Title #4.

Pick #9: Mike

As mentioned earlier Mike is one of the few that hasn’t won a title. Will this be his year? In Round 1 he took the BIG DOG Derrick Henry. I was expecting a tough choice at pick #12 between Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry and neither of them fell to me. When deciding Chubb versus Henry I thought that Chubb would have the better season, but if the Titans are in playoff contention I’d rather have Henry. In the playoffs Henry plays the Texans twice. The Texans where he averages 200 yards rushing against. In the fantasy playoffs. Bodes well for either a late playoff run or a run for more balls in the draft lottery. In Round 2 you took Garret Wilson. He reminds me of Julio Jones a little bit. Wilson should have a monster season with Aaron Rodgers at the helm. The Offensive Rookie of the Year finished as WR#19 with horrible QB play last year. Have you seen Zach Wilson play? I personally had Lamb and Adams higher than Wilson, but I get the allure. In Round 3 you got an incredible gift in Jahmyr Gibbs. RBs drafted in the first 12 picks of the NFL draft have gone on to finish with RB1 (Top 12) seasons in fantasy pretty consistently. Montgomery might steal a little bit, but Gibbs is going to explode. In Round 4 you took Keenan Allen. The 31 year slot receiver who is always hurt. Over Cooper. And Hopkins. And Moore. And Jeudy. And Mike Williams who went two rounds later. Mike. This is a terrible pick. You get an incredible gift of Gibbs in the third and then you draft Keenan fucking Allen in the 4^th? Why don’t you want to win Mike! Why don’t you WANT IT! From now on if you are thinking about taking someone just text me. Let the league call collusion. I don’t care. I would have told you that this is a terrible pick! In Round 5 you took Justin Herbert. Super talented Qb. Was hampered last year by a rib injury. That is all healed up and enters Kellen Moore at OC and Quinten Johnston at WR. Johnston gives them depth at WR for when Allen and/or Mike Williams inevitably get hurt. In Round 6 you took Chris Godwin. Over Christian Watson, Mike Williams, and Terry McLaurin. Then in Round 7 you took Tyler Lockett. I’m truly flabbergasted. You later took Odell Beckham. Nico Collins was a phenomenal pick. But I don’t know why you took a large quantity of old oft-injured WRs. You got no RB depth.

Draft Grade: D-. Henry over Chubb was ok. Wilson over Adams was ok. Gibbs was great. The rest. HOT GARBAGE. Are you suffering from low testosterone? Like maybe you are balding or something? I haven’t seen you in awhile and I know you hang out with a lot of women in your house. Has the estrogen gotten to you? I can’t understand why you would take so many balding, aged, dusty wideouts unless there is some underlining empathy you’re feeling that I don’t know about.

Pick #10: Kenny

K-Dub is back in Louisiana and looking to get back to his winning ways like when he made back-to-back Super Bowls in 2020 and 2021. In the first round to get this party started he took Nick Chubb. Loved the pick. As RBs shot up into the first round Kenny locked in the best pure rusher in the league. Kareem Hunt isn’t there to snipe plays anymore, this could be a career year for the Chubbster who has 1210 career rush attempts and has averaged over 5 yards per carry every season in his career. He has also scored at least 8 touchdowns every year in his career. In Round 2 he still locked in a Top WR in Stefon Diggs. Pretty good. 29 years old coming off ppr wr finishes of #4, #7 and #3. As Allen goes, Diggs goes. Of course, I’ll never forgive him for the Minnesota Miracle. Fuck that guy. But solid selection.

In the 3^rd round temptation was too great and K-Dub locked in Jalen Hurts. Hurts averaged about 30 points per game last year. The fact that 9 people passed on him 3 times is a testament to how bad we all are at fantasy football. The Hurts-Chubb-Diggs combo is a pretty damn nasty trio. Then Kenny went Deebo Samuel. I didn’t care for this pick too much. Last year he was mad about his contract because of the “wide-back” position he held in 2021. Then he got hurt. Then they traded for Christian McCaffrey. Auyik began to ascend. Deebo should be healthy this year, but what is his role? CMC took the wide-back. Kittle was catching the redzone TDs. Auyik was moving the sticks on 3^rd down. What’s left for Deebo? In Round 5 you took Mike Evans. Evans has 9 straight seasons of 1000 yards receiving to begin his career. I’m glad they are being so upfront about that stat. It lets us all know that the Bucs are going to try and make it ten for Evans since there is no shot in hell this team is making the playoffs with Baker Mayfield at the helm. Maybe they’ll rally around this stat and help Kenny out. In Round 6 you took Cam Akers. Man what a crazy year last year for the Rams. Gonna trade him, no they aren’t. Darrell Henderson starts. Then they cut him. Akers was coming off the torn achilles last year. But then he finished the year strong. The offensive line sucks. I haven’t touched him this year. He did finish 2022 with 3 straight 100 yard games. So I guess that’s something to build on going into this year. In the mid rounds you went with a few timeshare rbs in Brian Robinson, D’Andre Swift, and Jeff Wilson Jr. Not bad not bad. At any given time during the season these names can be called up to carry a bigger load for their teams. Good value in Njoku and Gabe Davis late.

Draft Grade: B. Team can compete but is a Nick Chubb injury away from being very mediocre.

Pick #11: Moose

Surprise Surprise. Moose picks at 11 and you ten idiots allow a player to drop to him who could lead the league in targets and receptions. Cooper Kupp was on a ludicrous pace to start the year last year before getting hurt. The Rams were a dumpster fire, but despite it all, Kupp was balling. In 8 games to start the year he averaged 11.6 targets, 9 receptions, 101.6 yards, and .75 touchdowns. You all passed on that? Kupp did suffer another injury this offseason. With his age there is a reinjury risk. There is also the risk that the Rams are terrible again and want to rest their starters again. I like Kupp to have a big year this year. After Brad snagged a pair of wideouts Moose got to take Tony Pollard. Pollard was RB#8 in ppr last season and now Zeke is gone. Reminder that Zeke ran 231 times for 876 yards and 12 touchdowns last year. Mike McCarthy is also taking over play calling duties with Kellen Moore gone to LA and McCarthy has been vocal in his plans to run the ball more. All these factors spells “smash spot” for Tony Pollard. Only concern is the fact that he’s coming off a fractured left fibula. These injuries can take 3-6 months to heal. The injury occurred in January in the NFC Divisional playoff game against the 49ers. He was also a free agent heading into the offseason, but the Cowboys invested the franchise tag cost of 1 year $10 million dollar deal to keep Pollard on and unlock some other backs in the league he accepted it and signed.

In the 3^rd round another gift! Mark Andrews or Mandrews. Todd Monken is going to add a lot of passing to this Baltimore attack. Look for Lamar Jackson to return to his MVP ways this year. Only concern for Andrews is new competition for targets and the new system. With signing free agent Odell Beckham Jr, drafting Zay Flowers, and Rashod Bateman coming back from injury the Ravens suddenly have a lot of mouths to feed. In the 4^th round after Bitter Brad lost out on the Jackson-Andrews stack he then doesn’t pick Jackson and gives the stack to Moose. Moose was gifted from both ends of the draft this year.

In Rounds 5 and 6 Moose takes Breece Hall and Diontae Johnson. Breece Hall is a solid RB#2. Yes Dalvin Cook is in town, but Cook didn’t play that well last year. Cook finished ranked #64 rushing grade according to PFF last season. His shoulder is constantly hurt. How much does he have left in the tank? When people are asking how Moose won his 5^th title in this league they are going to look back at this Breece Hall pick and go, yeah we are super dumb.

Moose filled out his roster with Michael Thomas and Jordan Addison, Jerick McKinnon and Kenny Gainwell. Saints D/ST. Last year I made a lot of great decisions in the draft and I had luck fall my way. This year Moose made a lot of great decisions and had luck fall his way.

Draft Grade: A. Moose is going to win a 5^th title and all of us let this happen.

Pick #12: Brad

Monday morning I woke up and looked at my roster. I sneezed. A large accumulation of phlegm entered my throat and I ran to the trashcan in the kitchen and vomited. I am not exaggerating. This literally happened. I’ve been sick the past few days with fever, aches, pains, chills, and scratchy throat. Looking back at the draft this has to be my worst drafting performance in the history of the league. If I was hoping for a Michael Jordan flu game for the draft, this was not that. Let’s get this over with. At the end of Round 1 several Round 2 ADP running backs had been drafted so I elected to go WR-WR. I prepared for this in my mocks and liked the look of big bruiser AJ Brown and target machine Amon-Ra St. Brown. The Brown-Brown combo. AJB caught career best 88 catches, 1496 yards, and 11 touchdowns in his first season as an Eagle. This included WR1 (Top 12) or WR2(Top 24) finishes in 12 out of 17 weeks last year. Amon-Ra St. Brown has averaged 9.7 targets per game in his last 22 games. Amon-Ra does have a minor ankle injury and obviously looking back I am regretting not taking Tony Pollard who at least had time for his broken ankle to heal all offseason.

In the third round all the running backs were gone. All of them. Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews were both available and a stack certainly crossed my mind. But I knew Moose wouldn’t let me have the stack. Sure enough he took Andrews. Since I wasn’t getting the stack I said screw Lamar Jackson, I’m going to wait on a Qb now. I then searched for the next closest running back which had an ADP of almost 2 rounds later. I decided to reach and take Dameon Pierce as my RB1. Pierce should be a workhorse and he graded very well in breaking tackles last season. Some analysts have argued that he should be a 4^th round pick and not a 5^th/6^th round pick and I certainly hope those analysts are right. I took Calvin Ridley. He has been getting so much hype this offseason. The 28-year-old who will be playing his first ball in almost two years after having an injured riddled fourth season then being suspended all last season for betting on games. Ridley did finish as PPR WR #5 back in 2020 in his third season/breakout year. My concern is the crowded weaponry in Jacksonville as much as the rust that may need to be shaken off. Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, and Evan Engram all had career seasons last year for Jacksonville. I don’t know how the target share and production is going to be sliced up this year which should have had me avoid the situation. I was planning on taking Amari Cooper here, but my instinct told me to take Ridley. We’ll see if my fever induced hallucinations of a draft will work or not.

In Round 5 and 6 I drafted Trevor Lawrence and David Montgomery. Lawrence finished as QB#8 last year, but started off slow. Doug Peterson was able to work some magic and get Lawrence’s confidence up and he performed better including 3 Top 5 Qb weeks from Weeks 12-18 post bye week. With the AFC South being a bit of a dumpster fire and Lawrence adding Ridley, I took my Qb to complete the Lawrence-Ridley stack just in case Ridley does indeed reclaim his 2020 version. Montgomery was a pick hoping that his streak of Top 25 rb finishes continues past the 4 seasons he had in Chicago. Jamaal Williams is now a Saint along with his 17 touchdowns, so Brad is hoping between Amon-Ra and Montgomery he can capture a large share of those tuddies. Brad passed on Cam Akers and Christian Watson with this pick and he deserves to lose.

In later rounds Brad took Drake London and Antonio Gibson just changing his team from bad to worse. In the 10^th round last year he took a defense. This year he took a second Qb in a 1 Qb league. Anthony Richardson compared to Derrick Henry. Richardson is taller, heavier, and faster. I couldn’t resist. Brad took Eagles D/ST since they will have leads most weeks increasing their chances for sacks and interceptions. Took Brandon McManus who leaves the altitude in Denver for the swamp in Jacksonville. I believe he’ll be playing with a chip on his shoulder. Brad drafted a second tight end.

Draft Grade: F. An offseason of managing dynasty teams, drafting best ball teams, combined with a fevered illness must’ve messed with our dear commissioners’ brains during this draft. The 12^th spot had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, he didn’t rise to the occasion. This team will not make the playoffs, nor does it seem likely to compete in the bottom bowl. Look for the commissioner to become disengaged in this league and focus on entrepreneurial pursuits sooner rather than later into the 15^th season. Can a commissioner come back from something like this? Should he retire all together?

Draft Grades in Order of Picks:

Trey- C

Katon- B-

Jen- B+

Joe- B

Tommy- C

Scotty- C+

JD- B

Chase- A

Mike- D-

Kenny- B

Moose- A

Brad- F

Draft Grades in Order of Grades:

Moose- A

Chase- A

Jen- B+

Joe- B

Kenny- B

JD- B

Katon- B-

Scotty- C+

Tommy- C

Trey- C

Mike D-

Brad- F

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading and best of luck this season!

-Commish B-Razzle Dazzle, AKA Fantasy Football Brad, AKA 2023 Bad Draft Award.

Dynamo Dynasty League Startup Draft Grades

July 12, 2023July 12, 2023 bradleybertoniere Draft Guide, Fantasy Football, NFL, Rankings Dynasty League, Fantasy Football, NFL

Dynamo Startup Draft Grades by Fantasy Football Brad

Introduction:

For those of you who haven’t read any of my writings on fantasy football you can now see that I have a blog on www.fantasyfootballbrad.com. On this blog I’ll post annual draft grades and sometimes throughout the season other tidbits. In my Best Buy League of 15 years, I do a weekly write up for recaps and previews. Each year in both my 23-year-old league and the 15-year-old Best Buy league I type up a long write-up giving each member a grade on how they drafted based on my opinions. Obviously as our fearless Commissioner likes to say, “opinions are like assholes, everyone’s got one.” That is what these grades are, my opinion. Some of my league mates print out their draft grades and put it on their fridge as motivation throughout the season to prove me wrong. I try to provide some background data and/or information on how I formulated my opinion, but obviously in football there is a good chance I am wrong. I do these as a data dump to clear my mind after a draft and to (hopefully) provide a little bit of entertainment for my league mates. Feel free to settle in for a hearty shit one morning and open this bad boy up and see what I think about your draft. Just a couple of housekeeping items before you dive in, I looked at the draft and graded the teams based on how they drafted a Dynasty Startup team. Because of the 21 round draft I provided detailed analysis of your first 12 picks and then summarized the rest in the following sections. Some of you tended to favor redraft or “win-now” strategies, so I summarized my assessment of your team in the “Roster Build Type” section. I clarify this type in the “Roster Construction Analysis” section. Then I end with your overall draft grade. Feel free to leave comments or to plot your revenge. At the end of the write up I’ll list out the draft grades in order of draft position, highest to lowest grades, and highest to lowest grades in each division. Enjoy!

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Ian was blessed with the keys to the Justin Jefferson train, and he didn’t botch his opportunity. Jefferson led the NFL in both catches with 128 and receiving yards with 1,809 last season. He was the youngest player in NFL history to lead the league in both. He is 24. He is an LSU guy. And I’m bullish on the Vikings offense this season (as evident of my draft) making this the slam dunk pick to start the draft. My only concern is Kirk Cousins being 35 and in a contract year, so a bit of unknown on who will be throwing him the ball after this season. At the end of the 2^nd Ian had to take his time on this pick because of the pesky third round reversal. The reversal meant Ian would have to wait 22 picks before his next selection. He elected to go with 30-year-old Davante Adams with a new Qb and the 31^st worst strength of schedule this year (according to Warren Sharp). Regardless, Adams proved last year he could be just as dominate without a hall of fame Qb throwing him the ball and he should continue to produce for the next 2-4 seasons. He could’ve gone young gun Qb like Herbert or go stud running back like Barkley, but he elected the Top 5 WR and after seeing the rest of Ian’s build, I’m okay with this pick. At the 3^rd/4^th turn he was gifted from the heavens with Mark Andrews or “Mandrews”. Todd Monken will turn the Ravens into more of a passing team and they made their intentions evident with the additions of Zay Flowers and OBJ in the offseason. Andrews is 27 and is coming off of an injury plagued year in 2022, but short-term memory folks may not remember that in 2021 he was the fantasy #1 tight end, scoring more than Travis Kelce. Slam dunk pick for Ian getting a nasty JJ-Adams-Andrews combo, which is going to be a ppr nightmare for the rest of us. In the 4^th he went Kenneth Walker. Walker looked like Chris Carson’s clone last season, making me rub my eyes while watching him to make sure Carson truly did retire due to his neck injury or if the aliens that run the NFL were just playing a prank on us. Walker looked great last year and is 22 years old. This pick began the overall theme of Ian’s draft, which was veteran wide receivers and young running backs. A great strategy for a dynasty startup draft. Walker’s only concern is the high draft capital used on Zach Charbonnet. Charbonnet has a little Kareem Hunt/Tevin Coleman to his comparable, so Walker should be fine, even if Zach takes the 1B role. I personally liked Pollard, Stevenson, and Pierce more than Walker, but Walker is the youngest out of all of them and should last longer in the league. In the 5^th round he was gifted yet again. No one wanted Deebo Samuel. His ADP was 43.8 according to Sleeper and yet he fell to Ian at pick #60. He is 27 and was made famous by his “wide-back” role in 2021 that caused him to seek a new contract in the offseason prior to 2022. But with Trey Lance getting injured, Brock Purdy taking over at Qb, and the midseason trade for Christian McCaffrey all of a sudden Deebo’s situation is looking a lot different. Kudos to the rest of the league for picking up on the differences. CMC eliminates the need of the “Wide-back” situation. Purdy’s style of play favored Kittle and Auyik more than Deebo. The two situations hit him down a few pegs, thus the fall in this draft. Still, not a bad pick for Ian’s WR#3 and at this position. I liked rookies Jordan Addison and Quentin Johnston better here, obviously, since I took Addison a few picks later. But again, Ian went veteran WR and young RB as his strategy. In the 6^th he started things off with Javonte Williams. This dude’s knee was FUCKED UP. He tore the ACL, but that wasn’t the worst of it. He also had PCL and LCL injuries as well. Players with this specific type of knee injury only make it back to the same playing level 18.5% of the time. (According to totalorthosportsmed.com). I’m not saying it can’t happen, but this fact did move Samaje Perine up my rankings quite a bit, leading me to draft him in Round 12. Ian went back-to-back veterans in Rounds 7 and 8 with Chris Godwin and David Montgomery. Montgomery takes over the Jamaal Williams role from last year that saw the new Saint score 17 rushing touchdowns in 2022. Gibbs will take over the Swift role from last year and could cut into Montgomery’s production, but don’t sleep on Montgomery who is coming in with a chip on his shoulder after being upended by Khalil Herbert in the division rival Bears last season. Godwin, I love as a player. He is only 27 and is very talented. Only concern is Qb in Tampa whether it’s Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask. With that said the NFC South is hurting and wide open, so Godwin could be a steal at this pick and provide great flex appeal throughout the season if he builds rapport with whoever the new signal caller winds up being. In Round 9 and 10 Ian went Kyler Murray and Gabe Davis. Davis being the youngest wideout for Ian so far at 24. Both players underwhelmed last year. Murray getting injured and Davis being hampered by an ankle injury. I’m not high on Murray at all at this point. Work ethic concerns, the Cardinals are a bit of a dumpster fire roster wise, he is going to start off the year still rehabbing his knee, and he’s short at “5’10”-listed, but looks 5’6” while playing. In Rounds 11 and 12 Ian went rookie Tajae Spears and veteran Qb Daniel Jones. Jones will be Ian’s starter probably now and in the future and it helped put a band aid on the Kyler Murray pick for me. I loved the Spears pick as well. Derrick Henry is coming to the end of his shelf life and Spears could see passing down work right away. Especially with the news of Hassan Haskins being arrested last week and was charged with strangling and assault with a deadly weapon on his girlfriend. Spears should see the field early and often and take on the 3^rd down role, giving Ian RB depth and flex worthy appeal. In Rounds 13 and 14 Ian broke my heart taking two players I really wanted. Rookie Israel Abanikanda and John Metchie, newly returned from his battle with cancer that cost him his rookie season. Metchie will battle to be rookie CJ Stroud’s darling and has Nico Collins and Robert Woods as his main competition. Israel could start the year as the #2 role as he lists as more talented that Michael Carter. This is significant news because if Breece Hall isn’t ready for a full workload to start the year Isreal could be a sneaky starting running back to start the year on the newly acquired Aaron Rodgers-led Jets.

Roster Build Type: Win-Now

Roster Construction Analysis:

Solid core with veteran WRs and young running backs. Danny Dimes at Qb with Kyler Murray as backup. Kenneth Walker and David Montgomery to provide solid floors. JJ and Adams and Andrews for the big-time playmakers at WR1, WR2, TE. Might have best flex combo in league with Deebo and Godwin depending on Qb situations for both. Bench is extremely lacking for me hurting Ian’s overall draft grade. His starters are an A, his bench is a D. If he can stay healthy, he can make the playoffs, but as we all know that’s a big if in football.

Overall Grade: B-.

Oscar

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Oscar’s grade is an F automatically for letting the snake of a commissioner Michael Gilligan Bellocq jump me for Ja’Marr Chase. My pity party aside, I don’t blame Oscar for the trade back when you consider his desired strategy. He wanted a top Qb. With the 2^nd pick he was able to trade back, move up in the 2^nd round, get his top Qb, and acquire a pair of 3^rd round picks in the 2024 rookie draft. Obviously, 3^rd round rookie picks aren’t that big of a deal, but it does give him ammunition if he wanted to move up in a draft class that includes Qb Phenom Caleb Williams and Legacy Stud Marvin Harrison Jr. After moving back Oscar was up at 7 and took Jalen Hurts. The Eagles are loaded, and I have no reason to believe Hurts will regress. The Eagles did lose all their coordinators to head coaching positions, but I believe they’ll pick up where they left off and compete late in the season for a Super Bowl. In the 2^nd round Oscar went Cooper Kupp, over younger studs like Chris Olave, Tee Higgins, and Devonta Smith. Kupp is 30 and the Rams are a bit of a mess right now, but he was playing at an insane level to start the year last year. If Stafford and him are back to where they were then Oscar could have a Top 3 Qb and Wr locked in to start the draft. But how long does Kupp have left on the tires? In the 3^rd round Oscar picked his first running back with Josh Jacobs. Jacobs isn’t happy about being franchise tagged and is threatening to sit out if a long-term deal isn’t reached. I don’t blame the guy he set career highs last year in attempts (340), rushing yards (1653), receiving yards (400), average rush (4.9) and tied his high rushing touchdown number (12). Jacobs is a victim of the running back market. They have a short career and are highly replaceable. Jacobs put it all out there last season. Played hurt. Overcame adversity and put on dazzling performances including that 33 rush, 229-yard, 2 touchdown performance against the Seahawks in November. Once running backs get paid it’s not pretty. (See Le’Veon Bell, Ezekiel Elliot, Todd Gurley, etc.) We’ll see if the two sides can come to an agreement soon. In the 4^th round pick 4.2 Oscar took Najee Harris. Harris has underwhelmed so far in his NFL career. His rookie year he had a dinosaur at Qb in Big Ben. Last year his offensive line was atrocious, and he was battling a Lisfranc injury that he suffered in Day 1 of training camp. He did perform a lot better after the bye week last year and still has time to turn his career around. All he needs his Kenny Pickett to play better and to not withstand any injuries that could linger. In the 5^th and 6^th round Oscar continued his no-rookies strategy with Dallas Goedert and Amari Cooper. Both are great selections and will contribute early and often for Oscar this season. Goedert is a Top 5 Tight End in one of the best offenses in football. Oscar gets the Hurts-Goedert stack which could win him some weeks. Cooper will be in his first full season with Deshaun Watson at Qb and I’m bullish on the Browns passing attack this season. This of course gives Oscar Cooper Kupp and Amari Cooper and thus, some valuable team name ammunition. Cooper Trooper? In Round 7 he went aggressive runner Isaiah Pacheco. Pacheco helped me win a title in my home league last year, so I’m a big fan of his. I loved the pick and hope the sophomore performs well this season. In the 8^th Oscar went Mike Evans. The 29-year-old has had 9-1000 yard seasons to begin his career, which is incredible. Last season he looked like dust and his Qb situation has gotten worse. Can he do it again for Oscar and provide flex worthy weeks in 2023? In Round 9 Oscar finally took his first rookie in Carolina Panthers Wide Receiver Jonathan Mingo. Mingo has a path to be Bryce Young’s go-to receiver, but must first stave off veterans like Adam Thielen, DJ Chark, and Terrance Marshall. He may start off slow, but I like the investment for the 22-year-old here and provided a dash of youth on Oscar’s above average aged team. In Round 10 he went with JuJu Smith-Schuster. He got a ring with the Chiefs and then bounced to join Mac Jones in New England. Bill O’Brien takes over at OC and we’ll see if he can get the offense going for the Pats. Rumors are swirling about Patriots being favored to land DeAndre Hopkins, but we’ll take a wait and see approach to see if JuJu will be a value pick or a bit of a bust here. In Round 11 Oscar took another rookie receiver…from the 2015 draft class in Odell Beckham Jr. OBJ signed with Todd Monken’s Ravens and I liked the pick. He is 30 and has been injured a lot in his career, so we’ll see what he has left in the tank. In round 12 Oscar went rookie Josh Downs out of North Carolina. Downs lands in Indy with physical freak Anthony Richardson. Downs posted an 86.7% Z-Prospect score according to Late-Round Fantasy Football: 2023 Prospect Guide and drew comparisons to Elijah Moore and Tyler Lockett. He’ll have to beat out veteran WR Isaiah McKenzie for the starting slot role in the offense this season.

Roster Build Type: Win-Now

Roster Construction Analysis:

Like Ian, Oscar went veteran wide receivers and younger running backs. His starting lineup of Hurts-Jacobs-Harris-Kupp-Cooper-Goedert-Pacheco-Evans is very impressive. Again looking at his bench it looks like a Oscar is a couple of injuries or potential hold outs away from preparing for the 2024 season. If he can stay healthy with Hurts-Geodert he can make the playoffs in Year 1, but a lot of things need to go right. The risk of getting aged WRs like this is it shortens your winning window. Oscar must win now or he could be at the bottom of the dynasty league for many years to come.

Overall Draft Grade: C+

Brad

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Brad loses a draft grade for letting the snake Michael Bellocq jump him and take Ja’Marr Chase. This reminds me of the episode of The Office when Dwight purchases Andy’s Nissan X-Terra after driving down the price and then flips it for a quick profit. Mikey B’s heartless and dickless move aside, Brad had the 3^rd pick in the draft, not the second, and elected to go with the best running back prospect to enter the NFL since Barkley in 2018. Why on Earth would a veteran fantasy football player like Brad (who recently got retweeted by Matthew Berry) go running back on the dynasty startup draft when he knows full well that running backs only last 4-6 years while wide receivers last 10-12 years. He sacrificed long term value for short term value. All the accountants in the group know that this is a mistake. I took Bijan because it provided me flexibility in my next several picks. By having a player that could help me win now (next 4-5 years) I could build for the future OR construct a “win-now” lineup. Couple Bijan’s talent with Atlanta’s run first mentality, #2 easiest strength of schedule according to Warren Sharp, the wide-open NFC South, and their offseason additions on their defense and offensive line, I’m bullish on Bijan to waste no time in being a fantasy superstar. CMC was going in the 3^rd round of redraft his rookie season and he didn’t disappoint. (More on the Falcons run game later). In the 2^nd round Brad got the guy he really wanted in Tee Higgins. Tee is entering his contract year at 24.5 years old. This season he has Burrow throwing it to him. Next season he could get tagged (since Bengals are about to pay Burrow a billion dollars) or he can find a new home. He would be the #1 Wide Receiver on half of the teams in the league, so it’s a good pick in the short term (1-2 years with Burrow) and the long term (could increase target share % on new team after this year). Was very pleased to pick him in the 2^nd. In the 3^rd round I actually didn’t follow my own strategy. I had running backs I liked then DK then a note that said “unless someone falls who shouldn’t like Mark Andrews”. I literally named Andrews and he fell to me, but I passed on him. Lucky for Ian. DK Metcalf is 25.6 years old and coming off his career high in receptions (90) and is Establish the Run co-founder, Evan Silva’s Wr#12 for this season. Seattle’s passing attack has a very favorable schedule. He fits the definition of a “Manimal” with his physique. In the 4^th round Brad was torn. All the analysts had Trevor Lawrence ranked higher than Anthony Richardson because he’s entering his third year and has a ton of firepower around him (Ridley, Kirk, Jones, Engram). Rhamondre Stevenson and Tony Pollard, two huge workload and prime of their career running backs were available. But no. Brad got his guy. Ian Hartitz sent out this tweet and it influenced my decision:

Per-game fantasy football ranks of QBs with 125+ carries in a season in NFL history:

1
1
1
2
3
4
4
5
5
6
7
8
12
17 (2020 Cam)

An Anthony Richardson tweet disguised as a Justin Fields tweet disguised as a Jalen Hurts tweet disguised as a Lamar Jackson tweet

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) May 18, 2023

Worth a shot. In the 5^th round Mike continued his sniping assault on me by taking Rachaad White, so I went with Alexander Mattison as my RB2. Evan Silva placed a large bet on Mattison to win the rushing title with 40:1 odds. To quote the big dog himself, “Alexander Mattison inherits Dalvin Cook’s workhorse role after re-signing a two-year, $7 million deal, 91% of which is guaranteed. Mattison possesses prototypical feature back size (5-foot-11/ 221) and has been treated commensurately by Vikings coaches in past opportunities to spell Cook; Mattison’s touch counts in his past five starts were 24, 32, 32, 25, and 16. Last year, Mattison outplayed Cook on a one-to-one basis, finishing 16^th in PFF rushing grade compared to Cook’s 64^th overall placement… I’m willing to draft Mattison aggressively above his ADP this season.” Did Brad draft a win-now team disguised as a young team? In the 6^th round Brad took rookie Jordan Addison who takes over Adam Thielen’s old spot on the Vikings. Warren Sharp and Evan Silva are in agreement that the Vikings defense sucks and this team is going to throw the ball a ton. Shoot-outs equal opportunities for the Vikings offense so Brad goes back-to-back Vikings. In the 7^th round Brad had taken Jahan Dotson is every single mock draft at this position, so he wasn’t surprised when Mike snagged him, but he was pissed. Having to pivot he decided to get Zay Flowers to see what Todd Monken’s offense looks like this year and to get a slice of the pie. In the 8th round Brad took bulging eyed Kadarious Toney. Toney is only 24 and has shown ridiculous flashes of athleticism. But he is awkward and always injured. If he can stay on the field can he take over as the #1 wideout for the Chiefs? He’ll obviously play second fiddle to Kelce, but can Toney keep together for a season? If so, what does that look like? In the 9^th Brad reached a bit to acquire Bijan’s backup, Tyler Allgeier. Allgeier rushed admirably last season, breaking Atlanta’s rookie rushing record while ranking #2 in the NFL in EPA/attempt among all RBs with 100+ carries. Excerpt from Warren Sharps NFL Preview book, “Arthur Smith’s scheme last year allowed his Falcons RBs to rank: #1 in rushing yards, #1 yards per carry, #1 rushing first downs, #2 in EPA/rush, #3 in success rate.” They also drafted Matthew Bergeron in the 2^nd round who will most likely move to guard and was a much better run blocker than pass blocker at Syracuse. Brad locked up Bijan and doubled down with Allgeier with a chance of being able to start both in a bind. In Round 10 Brad snagged his 5^th rookie in Sam LaPorta. The Lions drafted LaPorta to replace TJ Hockenson. LaPorta could get looks early in the season with Jameson Williams suspended the first 6 games, but it’s best to limit rookie tight end expectations as it typically takes them awhile to acclimate to the NFL. In the 11^th round Brad went Elijah Mitchell. Mitchell is 25.2 years old and backs up Christian McCaffrey for the Niners. McCaffrey had a few years of injuries but was able to stay on the field for most of last season. Mitchell was not and is more injury prone than McCaffrey. Whoever holds the keys to the Niners run game is going to compete week in and week out, so worth a shot. In the 12th round Brad traded back with his brother Andy. Andy approached Brad with a trade to swap 12th and 13th round picks in exchange for Andy’s 2024 4^th round pick. Brad obliged and took Samaje Perine and Kirk Cousins. We know Brad is bearish on Javonte Williams knee and recovery. We also know Brad is bullish on the Vikings passing attack. Here he secures the Cousins-Mattison-Addison stack on the Vikings. Perine was a priority add for Sean Peyton and should contribute as they work Javonte back from that devastating knee injury. Perine’s pass blocking will get him more snaps than people realize. Cousins is 35 and in a contract year. Brad drafted Cousins for a 1-year rental in case Richardson needs time to develop and win the starting role over Gardner Minshew in Indy.

Roster Build Type: Win-Later

Roster Construction Analysis:

Brad called all-in on the 2023 draft class, which will determine whether this team is good or dogshit. It’s a bold move with a sprinkle of win-now by building around the Falcons and Vikings. Brad doesn’t have a RB#1 from previous years. He doesn’t have a WR#1. Nor a TE#1. Kirk Cousins was Qb #7 last year, meaning he is a Qb#1. Brad drafted based on potential. Bijan’s potential is in the Barkley-CMC range. Anthony Richardson’s potential is in the rookie Cam Newton-RGIII range. Tee Higgins is a WR#2 and so is DK Metcalf. Toney is an unknown. His bench is handcuff running backs and rookie wide receivers. If Brad can get lucky at the beginning of the season with some wins he could make a run late in the season, but how many things have to go right in order for him to win now? Too many for my liking.

Overall Grade: C+ (Could be an A, could be an F, life’s more fun when we are left guessing)

Mike B.

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Scheming, back-stabbing, pick-stealing, no-good mother trucker picks right next to me and systematically and methodically snipes me on every odd numbered pick in the first ten rounds. Enough venting let’s focus on the draft and not our now shaky friendship. Mike made a move and snagged Ja’Marr Chase, Burrow’s Butt Buddy and long-term friend. I agree with the decision and have no quarrels. He’s a stud, he’s 23, money pick. Let’s just hope he doesn’t celebrate a touchdown and break his hip…again. In the 2^nd round after Mike swapped and drafted after me, he took Devonta Smith. I like this pick a lot. Smith was my next best player after Tee Higgins. Smith had 5 weeks as a Wide Receiver #1 in 2022 including week 3 where he was the WR #1 that week. He only had 4 dud weeks giving Mike a solid WR#2 to start his draft. In the 3^rd round he had Lamar Jackson fall into his lap. Lamar just got paid, is 26, adds Todd Monken as OC, and the Ravens added Zay Flowers, OBJ, and Rashad Bateman should be returning as well. Add all these factors with Lamar Jackson’s hot start in 2022 where he averaged 34.8 fantasy points per game in the first 3 weeks and you’ve got a solid QB to lead this dynasty team. He has been injured the past several seasons, but if he can stay on the field, look out. In the 4^th round Mike went Rhamondre Stevenson. I was torn on Pollard, Stevenson, or Pierce here, but I understand Rhamonster’s allure. He’s 25 and Damien Harris is a Buffalo Bill. There are a lot of rumors of the Patriots wanting to sign a veteran like Fournette or Dalvin Cook, but as of right now this looks like a solid RB#1 for the next couple of years for Mike. In Round 5 he took Rashad White (who I’ve drafted in 5/5 best ball leagues so far). White is 24 heading into his sophomore campaign and Lenny Fournette is gone. He was serviceable last season when Fournette was out due to injury but regressed late in the season when Brady started peppering Fournette 20 times per game for reasons we’ll never understand. White doesn’t really have any backfield competition. Chase Edmonds was signed, but there’s a reason Arizona, Miami, and Denver all said, “no thanks”. Dude kind of sucks. Whether the Bucs are good or God awful, Mike chased the backfield ownership and volume opportunity for his RB#2. In Round 6 Mike snagged rookie Quentin Johnston. Johnston scored out as a 93.4% Z-Prospect Score according to Late-Round Fantasy Football: 2023 Prospect guide and drew comparisons to Tee Higgins, Alec Pierce, and Breshad Perriman. He’ll have to get past two aging and oft injured wideouts in LA with Keenan Allen being 31 and Big Mike Williams being 29. Overall, I like the pick. In Round 7 he really pissed me off by taking Jahan Dotson. Dotson caught 7 touchdowns as a rookie and showed flashes of stardom with 14.94 yards per catch. I didn’t particularly care for the Kendre Miller pick in Round 8. I’m not high on Miller because I’m very high on Jamaal Williams this season. Kamara is still around, so I don’t think Miller will be fantasy relevant this season unless there is an injury to Williams or Kamara. Perhaps the Saints move on from Kamara after this season, Miller would still be sharing the backfield with Jamaal Williams who signed a 3-year deal. In Round 9 I didn’t particularly care for Mike’s pick of AJ Dillon either. Dillon was supposed to be 1B last season for Green Bay and he was more 2A. It was a lot more Aaron Jones than most people anticipated I think. Dillon’s saving grace was 7 touchdowns, which could easily regress this year. His yards per carry have gone down each year since his rookie season (5.26-4.29-4.14). If Love can be average and Green Bay decides to split the carries a bit more evenly than last year, then maybe this will be a good value pick. I’m just glad Mike picked him so I could get 1000-yard rusher and 4.93 yards per carry Tyler Allgeier with the next pick. In the 10^th round I loved Mike’s pick of Chig Okonkwo. Extremely talented, young tight end with not much competition for targets. In Round 11 he snagged rookie wide receiver Marvin Mims. Mims comparable WR is Jerry Jeudy, so I thought when they drafted him, Jeudy would be traded. Alas, Jeudy is still there and the more I hear out of Broncos camp it’s more Courtland Sutton is the odd man out having performed poorly in relation to his opportunities last season. Regardless, Mims has a chance to get some work in as a rookie and look for him to replace one of the big two next season. In Round 12 Mike drafted Damien Harris. Harris has a chance to be the early down and goal line back for the Bills high scoring offense. A sneaky add by Mike gives him potential RB depth and might make Dom look like an idiot for drafting James Cook 3 rounds earlier. Mike then traded back into Round 12 just to pick next to me in an ill-fated attempt to fuck with Brad. It was quite humorous, but his pick was even funnier. Jakobi Meyers will go from Mac Jones to Jimmy G and face the second toughest schedule this season. He’ll play second fiddle to Davante Adams, Hunter Renfrow and whichever tight end gets the most action out of Mayer, Howard, and Hooper. He had a few weeks of relevancy last season, but not consistent enough to bank on starting him this season. We’ll see how his rapport with Jimmy G goes and whether he can build on his career high 6 touchdown catches from last season. But I’m not banking on it.

Roster Build Type: Balanced.

Roster Construction Analysis:

Mike has a great mix of young studs and veteran contributors. This team looks built to compete early and often in this league. Mike hit the sweet spot. There’s a chance his RBs blow up in his face this season, but with Mike’s fantasy management dedication and skillset I have no doubt he’ll be in the playoffs competing late into this inaugural season.

Overall Draft Grade: A-

Daniel

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Dirty Dan has the 5^th pick and locks up his stud Qb in Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes secures him a Qb1 for this season and many more to come. One less position to worry about and I’m A-Okay with the pick. I projected all 4 of the top Qbs to go within the first round, so someone had to get the ball rolling. In the 2^nd round I also loved the Chris Olave pick. The 23-year-old had a solid rookie campaign and now gets a slight upgrade at Qb in Derek Carr. The Saints have the easiest schedule in the league this season. Michael Thomas can’t stay healthy. Olave is gonna smash this year and many years to come. And you get to root for the hometown Saints. Win-Win-Win. One could argue that Waddle should’ve been taken prior to Olave, but I won’t knock you on the Saint over the Bama product in Miami. In Round 3 you secured your RB #1 in Nick Chubb. Chubb has been a monster and word on the street is he’s getting more work in the passing game now that Kareem Hunt is gone. He’s averaged over 5 yards per carry every season in his career and has scored at least 8 touchdowns every year of his career. Last season he was RB#6 on the season in PPR. The concern for Chubb is longevity. He’s now 27 and has 1,210 career rushing attempts. That’s a lot of usage for a running back. I like him as an RB#1 this season and maybe for next season, but how long can the Chubster perform at this level? In the 4^th round Daniel took Tony Pollard, which I loved. This game him a solid RB duo for this season in Chubb and Pollard. Pollard was RB#8 in ppr last season and now Zeke is gone. Reminder that Zeke ran 231 times for 876 yards and 12 touchdowns last year. Mike McCarthy is also taking over play calling duties with Kellen Moore gone to LA and McCarthy has been vocal in his plans to run the ball more. All these factors spells “smash spot” for Tony Pollard. Only concern is the fact that he’s coming off of fractured left fibula. These injuries can take 3-6 months to heal. The injury occurred in January in the NFC Divisional playoff game against the 49ers. He was also a free agent heading into the offseason, but the Cowboys invested in a 1 year $10 million dollar deal to keep Pollard on. We’ll see what happens after this year. In Round 5 Daniel locked in his win-now style draft with Jerry Jeudy over rookies Addison and Johnston. Jeudy has had a few injuries, but when he’s on the field he plays great. In the final 6 weeks last season he finished as a WR 1 or 2 in 4/6 weeks. That includes his Week 14 Wide Receiver #1 ranking when he caught 3 touchdowns against the Chiefs. We’ll see what he can do this season and if Sean Peyton can squeeze blood out of the Russel Wilson turnip or not. In Round 6 I wasn’t a fan of the Keenan Allen pick. Allen is the third best WR option for the Chargers and might be done after this season. He’s 31, often injured. This was a win-now move, but not the good kind. I would have much rathered an RB #3 in Aaron Jones or Joe Mixon, or a young wide receiver like George Pickens, Marquise Brown or Terry McLaurin here. In Round 7 you went James Conner. Love the volume, hate the team he’s on. Rebuilding and dumpster fire of a roster. Kyler is going to be MIA to start the year and they play the Niners twice. There is a lot worse RB 3’s out there in the league, but I liked Pacheco and some of the young wide receivers here better (Dotson, Flowers, Godwin, Toney). In Round 8 Daniel continued his assault on youth with 30-year-old Tyler Lockett. But if there is a 30-year-old receiver to be able to do it then why not Lockett? Geno Mahomes is gonna be slinging it again this year. JSN will be involved, but I can see Lockett staying a WR2 or 3 this season. I don’t see him repeating his #13 WR overall PPR finish from a year ago though. No chance. In Round 9 you took Darren Waller the Baller. I liked this pick. After Njoku was off the board you get Waller who Danny Dimes is going to love. In Round 10 you finally went young with Rashee Rice, the Chiefs 2^nd round pick. Rice was graded as 78.1% in the LRFF: 2023 Prospect Guide with comparisons to Cecil Shorts and Mohammed Sanu. Not great. What was great was the capital used on him (2^nd round pick) and his location (the Chiefs). Toney is always hurt and JuJu is a patriot. Mecole Hardman is a Jet. Kelce is 32. Someone has to catch the balls from Mahomes. I doubt it’s MVS, so not a bad shot from the hip pick to see what happens. In Round 11 you got Rashad Penny. Penny looked great on the Seahawks before he got hurt. But getting hurt was the story of his time in Seattle. We’ll see if he can stay healthy being part of a running back rotation in Philadelphia between D’Andre Swift, Kenny Gainwell, and Boston Scott. (Trivia note, I lost a parlay bet during the Super Bowl because Scott couldn’t rush for one more fucking yard after the first quarter, so fuck that guy).

Roster Build Type: Win-Now

Roster Construction Analysis:

Daniel’s starting lineup is solid. He’s going to compete in 2023. I love the Mahomes-Goff combo at Qb. His running backs are just awesome…for this season. His Wide receivers and flex plays are solid…for this season. But if Allen, Lockett, Conner and Chubb are dust after this season then Daniel might be hurting next year and beyond. Also, I don’t understand why anyone would draft Ronald Jones the guy is absolute garbage. Loved the AT Perry and Foster Moreau picks late and I will probably be attempting to trade for your tight ends at some point this season.

Overall Draft Grade: C+. This is a great redraft team. Not a great dynasty startup team.

Colton

First 12 Picks Analysis:

A-Okay with AJ Brown here at 6. I probably would have drafted him at 4 if I was there and JJ- Chase-Bijan were all gone. Brown is a stud, has a crazy high ceiling each week and plays on one of the best rosters in the NFL. He’s only 26 and in the prime of his career. Slam dunk pick. In Round 2 you secured Austin Ekeler. Ekeler is 28 years old but is coming off his #1 Rb PPR season with the exact same backfield make up and an improvement at Offensive Coordinator. Ekeler should smash this season and hopefully you can get a couple seasons out of him before he fades into the sunset. In Round 3 you got Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the #1 Wide Receiver prospect in the 2023 draft. He went to the Seahawks, which is exciting as he could make an impact right away on a pass heavy team. Will JSN take Tyler Lockett targets this year or next? In Round 4 you took Dameon Pierce which I loved. He was awesome last season. The Texans sucked, but his running style was fun to watch. If I wasn’t obsessed with Anthony Richardson’s athleticism it was a tough choice between Pollard, Stevenson, and Pierce in the fourth round. If CJ Stroud can take some of the pressure off of Pierce, look out. In Round 5 and 6 you went Packers. First you went Christian Watson continuing your youth streak. Watson kind of exploded for those 7 touchdowns last season. Then you went to Aaron Jones. Jones is almost aged out at 28 years old, but he looked great last season. He out touched AJ Dillon 272 to 214 and averaged more per rush (5.26 vs. 4.14). The obvious concern for both these players is the change at Qb. Jordan Love is not Aaron Rodgers. He is one of the biggest questions marks this offseason. What do the Packers look like in the post-Aaron Rodgers era. In Round 7 Colton got Treylon Burks. Burks is a bit slower than many of the young studs, but he flashed some razzle dazzle in the middle of last season. Establish the Run has Treylon Burks as their dynasty player #22 overall! I’m not that high on him, but I think you got great value here in round 7. In Round 8 you got Tua to lead the helm. It’s just unfortunate he can’t wear a helm-et that can protect his weak ass head. All eyes continue to be on the Dolphins franchise to see how they deal with Tua’s recent bout with concussions. My opinion is you either play the game or don’t, but once you make that decision you live with that decision. Or die with that decision. Or whatever. Tua has a lot going for him with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle to throw to. Miami can also compete in the AFC North with Buffalo. They also have a trio of talented running backs in Mostert, Wilson, and rookie Devon Achane. You might remember Achane as the bitch that ran all over LSU last year. In Round 9 Colton took David Njoku. LOVE this pick. Was depressed when it happened. Browns are going to throw more this season. Watson will be more comfortable on this team (not as comfortable as forcing women to jerk him off during massage sessions apparently) and may set career highs in passing yardage and touchdowns. How much of that love is going to come the way of 27-year-old 6’4” 246-pound David Njoku is the question. He was TE #10 in PPR last year. In the 10^th round you went to Cole Kmet. I don’t like it. He’s young, but the Bears signed Robert Tonyan for a reason. You also drafted him over Greg Dulcich which you will regret for years to come. In Round 11 you took Sky Moore. He didn’t do anything last year, but maybe the second time is the charm. Then you snagged Pierce’s backup in Devin Singletary. I personally had Khalil Herbert and Perine ranked higher than Singletary in terms of value here, but I understand wanting to get your backups (see me taking Algeier early and then taking both backup Vikings backs later).

Roster Build Type: Balanced.

Roster Construction Analysis:

Colton did a great job creating a formidable team for this season and loaded up on young wide receivers to keep the party going for multiple seasons. I loved the late round stashes of Latu and Levis. He used his taxi squad well. I didn’t care for his mid round picks like Kmet, Moore, and Singletary, but he started and ended the draft very well.

Overall Draft Grade: B+

Mike D.

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Dickinson traded up from pick 1.07 to pick 1.04 and was the mastermind behind the 3-way trade that rocked the draft before it even began. He wanted to ensure he got his guy, Christian McCaffrey and was willing to part with a 2024 3^rd round pick and moving back 4 picks in the 2^nd round to do it. CMC had a few rough seasons in Carolina after being a stud in his first three NFL seasons. The slump ended when he was traded from the hapless Panthers to the Kyle Shanahan led San Francisco 49ers. Shanahan’s running game is legendary and runs in his blood. (That’s a Mike Shanahan reference for you old hats out there). CMC finished last season as a PPR monster and finished the season as PPR RB#2 overall. He does have a lot of usage under his belt and is 27 years old, but I know Mike D is a 49ers fan and this was a good pick to lock in a stud RB for the dynasty startup draft. If we aren’t having fun, then what the hell are we doing? In Round 2 Dickinson was blessed with a gift from the heavens in Jaylen Waddle. I don’t think people understand how good Waddle is and how great of a fit he is in Mike McDaniels offense. He was PPR WR#8 last year in his sophomore season. He’s 24 years old. And he had some monster plays last year. Slam dunk 2^nd round pick at 2.9 after the trade back. In Round 3 you took Drake London another monster. Establish the Run has Drake London as their Dynasty Player #8 Overall. Not wide receiver, like the 8^th best player in their dynasty rankings which is absurd. London is on a run first team that added Bijan Robinson and has Desmond Ridder as their starting Qb. But here’s the thing. When Ridder started playing at the end of last season London kind of exploded. Over the last four games he averaged 9 targets, 6.25 receptions, and 83.25 yards receiving. He was at least a WR3 each of those last four weeks and he didn’t catch a single touchdown during that span. I liked DK Metcalf, Lamar Jackson, and Mark Andrews better here, but London does have some sex appeal on his potential. In Round 4 Mike made the prudent choice that I couldn’t make. I passed on T-Law for A-Rich. But Trevor Lawrence really turned the corner in the second half of last season. Entering Year 3 and his weapons have gotten ever better with the addition of Calvin Ridley. Lawrence is only 23 and will provide valuable QB play for Mike’s fantasy team for years to come. This is where Dickinson’s draft went down hill for me. I didn’t agree with any of his next 10 picks. He started with a great core and then just came crashing down my rankings and my draft grades. JK Dobbins’ knee is not okay. I don’t know if you’ve seen that thing, but my God. It has bolts sticking out of it. When he returned last year and was deemed “healthy” he broke off a long run and his knee looked like it had two extra bones sticking out of it and he ran with a noticeable limp. He looked like he should be in a wheelchair and not anywhere near a football field. You drafted him over Rashad White, Alexander Mattison, and Dallas Goedert and I just hated the pick. I could be putting too much into what I saw with my own eyes, but I’m not touching the guy with a 10-foot pole. In the 6^th round you took DJ Moore. I like DJ Moore. I don’t like DJ Moore on the Bears. It could work, but even if you factor in an uptick for passing opportunities, his projected target share percentage, Fields making a jump as a passer, and their offensive line getting better I don’t see how Moore outperforms what he did as a Panther. He had three straight seasons of 1100+ yards receiving prior to last year, but last year was a bust. Despite his down year he was PPR WR#24 because he scored 7 touchdowns. If he sees a ridiculous 30% target share and all those things happen, I could be eating my words, but for me I didn’t like it. In Round 7 you took Cam Akers. Akers and the Rams were just gross last year. Their offensive line hasn’t improved much. Maybe Stafford and Kupp will come back and they can stay somewhat competitive, but Akers looked slow and not like his former self prior to his Achilles injury. Achilles injuries in running backs have historically been the kiss of death (see Marlon Mack, Tarik Cohen, James Robinson, etc). Maybe Akers can be the exception, but I wasn’t drafting him. In Round 8 you took a flier on Devon Achane. Wilson and Mostert get hurt a lot and are older, so I get the appeal. This pick wasn’t your worst. Next round you took Michael Mayer the phenom tight end out of Notre Dame. The 6’4” catch machine landed on the Raiders who seemed to freak out after trading away Waller in the offseason. After trading Waller they signed OJ Howard, Austin Hooper, and drafted Michael Mayer in the 2^nd round. Mayer might take a while to get going, but I love him as a future tight end prospect. I would just dial back expectations for him this season as rookie tight ends don’t typically pop off like you would think. In Round 10 you took CJ Stroud. Stroud looked great against Georgia. Just not great while taking the S2 Cognitive test which he bombed, badly. His quote was hilarious prior to the draft when he said, “I’m not a test-taker, I play football.” The test was about football for God’s sake, and he bombed it. Big red flag for me, but those Georgia highlights… In Round 11 you took Courtland Sutton. Sutton went 6 rounds after Jerry Jeudy which was mind blowing. Sutton finished as PPR Wide Receiver #43 last season. Jeudy was #22. He also missed a few games. Is that gap worth the 6-round gap in drafting position? Is Sutton salvageable with Sean Peyton in town or will they trade him either midseason or after this season? In Round 12 you took a flier on Jalin Hyatt, rookie for the Giants. Hyatt looked like DeSean Jackson for Tennessee last season. Torched Alabama. I’m talking en fuego. 6 catches for 207 yards and 5 touchdowns torched. It was beautiful. Buck Fama. He also caught a couple of touchdowns against LSU but we don’t need to talk about that. I like the prospect, but I don’t like the Giants depth chart. Hyatt will be competing with Isaiah Hodgins, Darius Slayton, Parris Campbell, Wan’Dale Robinson, Sterling Shepard, Jamison Crowder and David Sills. They’ll have to cut some of them, but I feel like Hyatt’s game is similar to Slaytons. Could be stashed on Taxi until this pecking order becomes clearer.

Roster Build Type: Win-Never.

Roster Construction Analysis:

Dickinson got the dreaded Win-Never build type. It is neither a competitor for this season nor did it build for the future. His core of T-Law, Waddle, and Drake London will be needed during his inevitable rebuilds in 2024 and 2025. I don’t think he can rely on the likes of CMC, Dobbins, Moore, Akers, or Sutton in the near future. Making matters worse was his questionable pick of Trey Lance in the 13^th round, drafting 5 quarterbacks overall, and the fact that he already is down a 3^rd round pick in next year’s rookie draft. Dickinson likes to wheel and deal in fantasy football, so maybe he can manage this team, but this draft was not it for me.

Overall Draft Grade: D is for Dickinson. I hope you prove me wrong.

Ollie

Analyse des 12 premiers choix:

Je ne sais pas si je devrais noter le brouillon d’Ollie ou les classements de repêchage automatique prédéfinis de Sleepers, mais c’est parti. Ollie est allé JT dans le premier et j’aime vraiment ce choix. JT a été gêné par un mauvais jeu de ligne offensive, un mauvais jeu QB et une blessure persistante à la cheville la saison dernière. Cette année, c’est complètement différent. Anthony Richardson pourrait réduire le nombre de sacs qui ont fait partie de Matt Ryan ou qui ne devraient pas faire partie de la formation de la NFL Sam Ehlinger la saison dernière. Taylor a 24 ans et entame sa 4e saison dans la NFL. Lors de la saison 1, il a couru pour plus de 1000 yards et 11 touchdowns. Dans la saison 2, il était RB#1 au total. Et dans la saison 3, il a terminé en tant que PPR #33 Rb manquant 7+ jeux. Il est toujours le même RB qui a couru pour 1811 verges en 2021. Anthony Richardson va aider JT et je pense qu’il lui reste quelques bonnes saisons. Au 2e round, Ollie est allé à Travis Kelce. Kelce est généralement Tight End #1 et est un tel avantage à avoir sur votre liste de football Fantasy. Alors que les gens jettent Dawson Knox le dimanche en espérant qu’il tombe dans la endzone, Kelce affiche des numéros RB # 5 à la position. Le delta entre lui et les gens qui jouent au jeu td au tight end est un tel facteur de différence. La seule préoccupation est le temps du père. Kelce a 33 ans. Combien de temps peut-il durer? Tony Gonzalez, qui a joué 17 saisons, a pris sa retraite après sa saison de 37 ans. Cela donnerait à Kelce 4 saisons de plus si elle peut égaler l’incroyable parcours de Tony Gonzalez. Je ne sais pas, mais laissons les bons moments rouler. Au 3e tour, Ollie a commencé le dessin automatique, je crois. Il était en panne. Etienne dans le 3ème était un autopick après 4 heures de temps coché. Je ne l’aurais pas repêché avant Chubb si j’avais gagné maintenant et je ne l’aurais pas repêché au-dessus de Walker ou Jacobs si je construisais pour l’avenir. Je n’ai donc pas aimé le choix d’Etienne. Au 4e tour, vous êtes allé avec Derrick Henry. The Big Dog a terminé en tant que PPR RB#4 l’année dernière. Il a couru pour 1538 yards et 13 touchdowns. Établir des sommets en carrière au chapitre des cibles (41), des réceptions (33) et des verges de réception (398). Il a 29 ans et les Titans sont un peu nuls. Que va-t-il se passer ? Une saison de plus pour la route ? Les titans roulent avec Tannehill et Henry une année de plus puis reconstruisent complètement? Je me rends au tournoi de golf caritatif à Lake Tahoe ce week-end et Mike Vrabel est censé être là, alors je vais lui demander pour toi Ollie. Deshaun Watson a été le choix de 5e ronde d’Ollie. J’ai aimé le choix. Watson devrait très bien faire cette saison. Cela s’annonce comme une grosse année qui passe pour les Browns. Et il est logique qu’Ollie l’ait emmené alors qu’il était en France, car je suis sûr qu’une masseuse française n’aurait aucun problème avec certaines des « demandes » de Watson. Au 6e tour, Ollie a ajouté Joe Mixon. Il y avait des rumeurs pendant la saison morte selon lesquelles les Bengals laisseraient partir Mixon en raison de sa performance, mais ils restent avec lui cette saison. Au 7e tour, Ollie est allé avec son premier WR! Christian Kirk!

Type de construction de la liste : Win-Now.

Analyse de la construction de l’effectif: Ollie est chargé de running backs et très faible au poste de wide receiver. Son jeune noyau est Watson (27 ans), JT (24 ans), Etienne (24 ans) et Christian Kirk (26 ans). Ollie est à égalité avec Oscar pour le roster le plus âgé de la ligue avec une moyenne d’âge de 27,1 ans. Il a le meilleur tight end et le meilleur groupe de running back de la ligue, mais son manque de wide receivers dans une ligue PPR complète est très préoccupant. Avec Henry et Mixon au bord du précipice de poussière, Ollie doit gagner maintenant, sinon il sera bientôt en mode reconstruction. Attendez-vous à ce qu’Ollie essaie d’échanger l’un de ses vétérans running backs contre un receveur plus jeune plus tard dans la saison si les choses ne semblent pas être en mesure de rivaliser dans la dernière ligne droite.

Note globale du repêchage : C

Adam

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Josh Allen has finished as the Fantasy Football Qb#2, Qb#1, Qb#1 in the past three seasons. There are rumors going around that the Bills are committed to running Allen less, but until I see it with my eyes I’m going to go ahead and assume Allen is going to continue to ball the hell out. He has been incredibly consistent in terms of fantasy football production. In 2022 he scored 409.24 fantasy points and in 2021 he scored 409.58 fantasy points. My prediction for this season is for him to score 409.4 fantasy points. Great pick to lock down the 27-year-old fantasy stud at Qb. In the 2^nd round you were handed a gift from Dom, Andy, and Cuz as they all managed to pass on the Sun God, Amon-Ra St. Brown. Brown is 23 years old, finished as the #7 ppr WR last year and that was in 16 games, not 17. He had 146 targets last season and caught 106 of them. This season the Lions open with 3 teams that finished below average in pass protection and in potential shootout games with the Chiefs, Seahawks, and Falcons. Quentez Cephus is no longer a Lion. Jameson Williams is suspended for the first 6 weeks. TJ Hockenson is a Viking. Sam LaPorta is a rookie. The only target competition might be Marvin Jones Jr. Last season Amon-Ra started the year with games of 20.4 and 39.4 fantasy points. He was targeted 12 times in both games. I think he starts the same this year. Slam dunk of a pick. Establish the Run has Amon-Ra as their 7^th best player in dynasty overall. You got him at pick #16. In the 3^rd round you had Saquon Barkley fall to you. This provides you with a solid trio of Allen-Barkley-Amon-Ra. Barkley is also not happy about his contract situation. The Giants paid Daniel Jones, but tagged Barkley. Barkley hasn’t threatened to sit out the season like Josh Jacobs, but there is definitely something brewing amongst the running back position. (Update: As of today (7/12/2023), Barkley IS threatening to sit out this season). Barkley is 26 and was finally able to stay on the field last season. He wind up as the #5 PPR RB. Great pick. Brian Daboll was fantastic in his first year as the Giants head coach and looks to build on that momentum in Year 2. In Round 4 you went Brandon Auyik for your WR#2. The 25-year-old Auyik wind up as the WR#15 in PPR last year and is hoping to build on his career highs in targets (114), receptions (78), receiving yards (1015), and touchdowns (8) heading into Season #4. The glaring question mark is the Qb position. Will Purdy be ready? Will Lance go away? One of the things that impressed me most about Auyik’s year last year was his fantasy consistency. In the last 9 weeks of the season Auyik had at least 9.6 fantasy points in 8/9 games. He had one dud week (3.9) and one boom week (26.7), but other than that he was just a solid WR3/4/Flex play. In a full ppr double flex league I like this pick. In Round 5 you got an incredible steal in TJ Hockenson. He’s only 26 and last year was peppered with targets once he was traded to the Vikings. Dom and Cuz are going to get reamed in their draft grades for drafting Bust Kyle Pitts and oft-injured George Kittle over Hockenson. Dumb. But Adam gets to benefit. Hockenson was Tight End #2 in PPR last year and that was with a terrible start to the year in Detroit. He finished with 129 targets. Now Jordan Addison comes in to replace aging Adam Thielen, but still. Kirk Cousins is turning 35 and his arm strength isn’t what it used to be, which wasn’t all that strong to begin with in NFL Qb standards. Look for Cousins to check down to his Tight End and Running Backs a good bit this year. Just a slam dunk pick and I’m jealous. In Round 6 you took a risk with Dalvin Cook. He’s a free agent, so it’s tough to gauge his worth. Since I don’t know where he’ll play, I’ll focus on what I know. He didn’t play great last year. As I mentioned in my draft grade about Alexander Mattison, Cook finished ranked #64 rushing grade last season. His shoulder is constantly hurt. How much does he have left in the tank? He’s 27 and on the outside looking in right now. For picks like this you must also look at opportunity cost. By drafting Cook, Adam passed on George Pickens (22) and Marquise Brown (26). We’ll see what happens, but I didn’t like this pick. In Round 7 and 8 you went with a pair of veteran wide receivers which I really liked. Terry McLaurin is underrated year in and year out. He just needs some decent QB play. But what he has been able to do with the Qb dumpster fire in Washington is nothing short of miraculous. He’s 27, so he’s got another 4-5 years in him too. In Round 8 you went with Big Mike Williams. Williams is 29, so he too can have a couple years left in him. I loved this pick because of Kellen Moore calling plays for the Chargers this year. Thought he was great value and I liked him more than Diontae Johnson and Tyler Lockett who went before him in this round. In the 9^th you drafted Dalton Kincaid, rookie tight end on Buffalo to create the Allen-Kincaid stack. Word on the Twitter streets is that Kincaid is going to have a more Mike Gesicki type of role and line up out wide and in the slot more. That’s good news considering the Bills no longer have Isaiah McKenzie or Cole Beasley and only have Trent Sherfield as their WR#3/slot guy. Hockenson and Kincaid give Adam my favorite Tight End group in the league. In Round 10 you went Roschon Johnson. Johnson will serve as your RB#2 as of right now until Dalvin Cook signs somewhere (if he signs somewhere). Roschon has a great opportunity, but it’s going to be tough to supplant veterans Khalil Herbert and D’Onta Foreman. If he can, then he has great potential at the end of this season. To finish the year the Bears have a VERY favorable rushing schedule including games against Detroit (27^th), Cleveland (29^th), Arizona (23), Atlanta (25) and Green Bay (31). (Numbers reflect rank of 2023 defensive rush efficiency). So, whoever gets the largest slice of pie out of the Chicago backfield can be a league winner. The question is, will it be Roschon? In Round 11 you went Darnell Mooney. I don’t really care for the pick. He seems like nothing to me. He was super hyped last season and he wind up having 3 double digit fantasy performances before being hurt and finished as the #71 ppr wide receiver. In Round 12 you drafted Zach Evans. A late 6^th round pick doesn’t provide the draft capital to believe he’ll be a factor this season, but the Rams running backs were awful and awkward last season and Akers is coming off that achilles injury, so anything can happen.

Roster Build Type: Balanced.

Roster Construction Analysis:

Adam put on a clinic in the first 5 rounds and then continued in rounds 7,8, and 9. He built a solid core that will help him compete this year and in the future. Allen-Barkley-Amon-Ra, Aiyuk, Hockenson with plenty of wide receiver options in the flex and a few rookie running backs. The glaring hole for Adam this season is running back #2 and his depth. In the later rounds he was drafting role playing wide receivers when he should have been continuing to add running back assets to see who can hit. Unfortunately, his running back situation knocked him down from an A- to a B+ for me.

Overall Draft Grade: B+. Great draft overall.

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Dom was looking at something when he was drafting, but it certainly wasn’t the same things I was looking at. Pretty much picked different players at every pick than I would have taken. Buckle your seatbelts because this is going to be a bumpy ride. Diddling Dom began his draft waiting until he was on the clock to put his pick on the trade block. He did have some offers as our drunk asses were stumbling onto the 10^th hole after doing double tequila shots, but he elected to pass on the trade and take his guy Garret Wilson. Wilson has been hyped to ridiculous levels this offseason. Aaron Rodgers! Moore is gone! I get it. Wilson is 22 and finished as PPR WR#21 last year with some piss poor QB play. He also won rookie of the year honors. Mike White looked alright at one point and then got injured. Zach Wilson was just terrible (in Charles Barkley’s voice). Establish the Run agrees with Dom’s choice here, but I don’t. I’d rather CeeDee Lamb or Amon-Ra St. Brown here. Rodgers might play a season or two so we’ll have to see if it truly elevates Wilson’s game to another level from last year. But let’s be honest. Rodgers didn’t look great last season. He was Qb#28 in points per game (14.1) and averaged 13.4 passing points per game, the fewest in his career. I’m sure he’ll be motivated and improve dramatically this season and maybe he can do what Tom Brady and Brett Favre did at the end of their careers and make a late postseason run, but we’ll have to wait and see. In addition, the Jets added Allen Lazard and Mecole Hardman in free agency, so we’ll have to see if that impacts Wilson’s target share. In Round 2 Dom solidified his win-now strategy by taking Tyreek Hill over younger wideouts like Amon-Ra St. Brown, Chris Olave, and Jaylen Waddle. Tyreek is 29 years old and was in the news for another offseason incident where someone is pressing charges against him. But the Cheetah is a freak and speed demon and is just so much fun to watch. I thought about taking him if he fell to me in the 2^nd, but I don’t think I could’ve taken him over some of the younger studs out there. Tyreek has said that he plans to retire after this contract is up. His contract is over after the 2026 season given Dom the Cheetah for 4 years. A lot can happen between now and then, but this wasn’t the move I would have made. In Round 3 he had another head scratcher going Justin Fields. Don’t get me wrong I love running quarterbacks and it’s true that if he wanted him, he needed to take him here because I was licking my lips hoping he would fall to me. But I did still have Lamar Jackson ranked higher than him. Lamar is 26 compared to Fields 24, already has an MVP under his belt and now gets paid, huge upgrades with Zay Flowers, OBJ, and healthy teammates coming back in Andrews and Bateman and then they also added Todd Monken as OC. I do believe Fields leaps this year and does better than last year. But does he finish higher than Lamar Jackson? No, I don’t think so. In Round 4, Dom took Kyle Pitts. Pitts was so hyped last year only to bust so fucking hard the Earth shook. Dom took him over TJ Hockenson. Pitts is only 22.8 and already has two seasons under his belt. I get that. But he’s on a run first team with an unproven QB. I just don’t know. If you were in win now mode, I think Hockenson or Goedert would have been the play here. In Round 5 you took your first running back in D’Andre Swift. Swift should be motivated after a frustrating year where the Lions limited his touches and snaps tremendously as he worked his was back from yet another injury. I don’t see the Eagles giving him a big workload. I think they continue their running back rotation with Swift-Penny-Gainwell-Scott. Swift is the most talented out of that group, but can he stay on the field? Maybe it’s plug and play and he takes Miles Sanders exact production from a year ago and finishes as RB #15 in PPR, but I don’t know. In Round 6 you took DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins will sign somewhere, so this a typical offseason risk/reward type of pick. You took him over George Pickens, Marquise Brown, Terry McLaurin, Christian Kirk, Treylon Burks, and Jahan Dotson. Going back to win-now mode with this decision. In Rounds 7-9 you took three consecutive running backs. Zach Charbonnet, Antonio Gipson, and James Cook. I liked these picks and provided you with some running backs to work with. Charbonnet was drafted as if he’s going to see work despite Walker being the 1A RB in Seattle. Gipson might be the guy? He should catch passes, which is valuable in PPR. James Cook is also more likely to take snaps in the two-minute offense and on third downs as opposed to Damien Harris or Latavius Murray for Buffalo. Overall, I like the trio. In Round 10 you took Rashad Bateman. Bateman looked great until he got hurt. He opened the year with back-to-back weeks with a touchdown. We’ll see how things shake out with Zay Flowers and OBJ entering the mix, but I like the value for the 23-year-old here in Round 10. In Round 11 you reached for Jerick McKinnon. He went off at the end of last season. Over the last 6 weeks of the regular season, he had 2 weeks as the #1 RB, and 3 weeks as a RB1, 2 weeks as a RB2, and his worse finish was RB30 but it was in Week 18 when fantasy didn’t matter. During the last 7 weeks he had 8 receiving touchdowns and 1 rushing touchdown. All that gave him a ppr rb finish of #20. We all know he’s 31 and he has gotten injured a lot in his career. But shit man. If Dom throws him in the flex and he has a little stretch like that it’s worth the pick. In Round 12 I loved his Jaylen Warren pick. Warren carved out a little role for himself even when Najee Harris had come back to full health. He handled 40% or more snaps post bye week in 4/9 weeks. (two of those weeks shouldn’t count because he got injured). He’ll mostly serve as a handcuff in case Najee gets hurt, but I liked the pick. Also wanted to add I loved the Geno Smith pick in Round 13. Geno Mahomes is going to ball out again this season and it gives him a solid backup to Fields.

Roster Build Type: Win-Never.

Roster Construction Analysis:

Ranking Dom’s team was rough for me. I made it obvious I was going young and potential. Oscar made is obvious he was going for win now. Dom was a bit all over. It’s more on the balanced side than Win-now I would say, but then I just don’t like his team. If I was drafting at pick 10 my team would probably have started with Lamb-Waddle-Jackson. I looked at KeepTradeCut to see if I was missing something, but they agreed ranking Dom as the 11^th team out of our 12-team league in terms of dynasty values. They have him ranked 8/12 at Qb, 9/12 at Rb, 8/12 at WR, and 2/12 at Tight End. I don’t think he has the RB firepower or wide receiver depth to make a run this season. His Fields-Wilson-Pitts core is the balanced part, and he can build around those guys, but I didn’t like the team he constructed around the core for this year. Maybe he can rebuild it in 2024 or 2025 and turn this from a win never to a win later type of situation.

Overall Draft Grade: D is for Dom.

First 12 Picks Analysis:

Breece Hall over CeeDee Lamb and Amon-Ra St. Brown was egregious in my opinion. Hall is great. He will be great. But he’s coming off a torn ACL and will start the season slow. Maybe Aaron Rodgers gets this offense clicking and the Jets make a run this season and Hall tears it up, but the 1^st pick in a dynasty startup draft, taking a player you are going to build your franchise around and you take the guy coming off the ACL tear?! Over CeeDee Lamb and Amon-Ra St. Brown? Thank God Andy had his sites on Gibbs and Joe Burrow came back around to you in the 2^nd. Burrow will be nestled in your Qb1 spot for the next 8 seasons and the joy of watching the LSU God ball out each year will be very joyful for you. I predicted he would go in Round 1, so I’m not surprised he went within the first 14 picks of the draft. In Round 3 with the third round reversal, you had pick #26. You took Stefon Diggs. Pretty good. Pretty good. 29 years old coming off ppr wr finishes of #4, #7 and #3. As Allen goes, Diggs goes. Of course, I’ll never forgive him for the Minnesota Miracle. Fuck that guy. In Round 4 you took George Kittle over TJ Hockenson. (insert loud buzzer noise here). Swing and a miss! Kittle is 29 and has played in every game in a season once in his career, back in 2018. He plays super aggressive, which is fun to watch as a football fan, but not as a fantasy football manager. You always must worry about him coming up limping. Now he wears a ridiculous looking helmet too. Hockenson is younger and will get more targets this season. Kittle finished as TE#3 last year in PPR but was carried by his career high 11 touchdowns. Purdy looked at him in the redzone, so maybe that can continue, but I’m banking on some touchdown regression back to where he normally gets in the 5-6 touchdown range. In Round 5 you made a good pick in Miles Sanders. He gets the keys to the Panthers kingdom with a whole new offense and coaching staff. He’s out to prove he was buried in the stupid Eagles running back rotation and he is looking to break out. Foreman looked great at times last season rushing for the Panthers, so we’ll see if the rushing attack can provide Sanders with the opportunity to match his top 15 running back finish from a year ago. The NFC South has favorable schedules this season so this could be a great value pick. In Round 6 you took George Pickens. Love the talent and the pick here. I know for a fact Andy wanted him badly at this pick and you sniped him. In the 7^th round you took Michael Pittman. Pittman might be okay, but I worry about his role in the offense. I think Richardson is going to improve his dynasty value for sure, but I wind up taking Alec Pierce later because I thought he might be a bit more consistent than Pittman. I liked McLaurin, Burks, and Dotson more than Pittman here. In Round 8 you took Brian Robinson. Robinson could have the early down running back role locked up in Washington. Gipson hasn’t proven he can be the every down guy. Washington has kind of sucked, but maybe Sam Howell can bring the wolfpack up from the ashes and deliver more scoring opportunities. Let’s just hope Robinson doesn’t get shot. Again. In Round 9 you took a flier on Michael Thomas. Thomas came back last year and looked like a monster until getting hurt. Yet again. He scored 3 touchdowns in the first two weeks then hurt his foot and he was done. Maybe he can come back, and the Saints can ride the slot boy train to victory land, so I’m okay with the pick here. He is aged 30 so it’s more of a win now move. In Round 10 you broke my heart by taking Greg Dulcich. I tried to trade up with Dickinson here but instead he wanted to stay put and take one of his five mediocre Qbs instead. His loss. And my loss. But Cuz’s gain. I like Dulcich a lot. Watching him at UCLA he was just floating out there in the middle of the field and no one could guard him. It translated into his rookie campaign where he was able to tease his potential with 3 games of at least 8 targets over his final four. He is 23 and will be ready to rock when Kittle inevitably misses time. In Round 11 you took Aaron Rodgers. This gives you some flexibility if Burrow hits a rough patch, but A-Rod only has a year or two left. In Round 12 you let Mike trade with you to jump me. You wind up taking Deuce Vaughn in the 13^th with the pick and you swapped your 5^th round pick with a 4^th round pick. It was fun and I won’t dock you for the move.

Roster Build Type: Win-Never.

Roster Construction Analysis:

The young core of Burrow-Hall-Pickens-Dulcich does give you future potential and the veterans of Rodgers-Sanders-Diggs-Kittle gives you balance. But is it enough? Is the roster enough to compete this season and is the young core enough to compete in the seasons to come? The Jets schedule isn’t very favorable, and I expect a very slow start for Hall this season. Maybe Sanders and Diggs can carry the roster early and then Hall can come on late and make a playoff run, but looking at this team do I see a true competitor for the inaugural season? No. Looking at the young guns do I think it’s enough to compete in the near future? Also no.

Overall Draft Grade: C-.

Andy

First 12 Picks Analysis:

As the rest of us Bozos were drafting our first player Andy patiently waited his turn to take his first and second player. His patience paid off as CeeDee Lamb, Establish the Run’s #6 overall dynasty player, FantasyPros #4 overall dynasty player and KeepTradeCut’s #5 overall dynasty player dropped to him. I think his drop came down to people in this league not wanting to root for the Cowgirls and because of McCarthy’s promise to score less points and slow the offense down by running more. Lamb finished as PPR WR#5 last season. He is 24. I think it’s a slam dunk pick for Andy. In the 2^nd round Andy reached for Jahmyr Gibbs. The Bama product was a monster in college and now gets to replace D’Andre Swift in Detroit. Gibbs was ranked as 98% Z-Prospect Score and drew comparisons to Alvin Kamara and Giovani Bernanrd. (Reminder that Bijan’s prospect score was 98.6% meaning Gibbs is closer than many people give him credit for). The Lions did sign David Montgomery to a three-year deal and Montgomery is 26 implying he still has meat on the bones for his NFL career. I think this move most likely stemmed from a couple of factors. 1. Andy wanted a Qb after the 3^rd round reversal and had his sites on Herbert. And 2. Andy realized that running backs dried up extremely quickly before he picked again at the 4/5 turn. This information then led Andy to decide WHICH running back to take rather than which player to pick. Then his choices came down to Ekeler, Gibbs, or Barkley. Out of that group I can see Andy going Gibbs due to age in a dynasty startup draft. I would have probably gone Amon-Ra St. Brown here getting the deadly CeeDee-Amon-Ra combo at WR and patching together the RB situation later, but to each their own. In Round 3 Andy got his beloved Justin Herbert. I think this is a great pick. Kellen Moore and the addition of Quentin Johnston has me bullish on the Chargers passing attack this season. Herbert was Qb#11 last year and was down across the board statistically recording fewer yards, touchdowns, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and completion percentage than his 2021 sophomore campaign. He did, however, improve on his interception total and I like his chances to bounce back and finish higher in the rankings this season. He’s also 25, so he has another 7-8 years locking Andy’s Qb position up and giving him one less thing to stress about. In Round 4 and 5 Andy lost me. I loved the Herbert-Gibbs-Lamb start, but then he reached on 27-year-old RB Alvin Kamara who will most likely be suspended for the first 6 weeks of the regular season. Andy also took 28-year-old Calvin Ridley who will be playing his first ball in almost two years after having an injured riddled fourth season then being suspended all last season for betting on games. Ridley did finish as PPR WR #5 back in 2020 in his third season/breakout year. My concern is the crowded weaponry in Jacksonville as much as the rust that may need to be shaken off. Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, and Evan Engram all had career seasons last year for Jacksonville. I don’t know how the target share and production is going to be sliced up this year which has me avoiding the situation. I have a couple of T-Law and Zay Jones exposures in best ball, I think. The slam dunk pick would be T-Law, but I even passed on him for some reason. Andy took Ridley over TJ Hockenson and several other players I would have considered. These two picks really deflated my grade for Andy. In Round 6 and 7 it was okay. Marquise Brown is a good pick. He flashed signs. Andy needs Kyler Murray to come back in a hurry to get Brown up to production. Jameson Williams also showed flashes but is also suspended the first 6 weeks of the regular season. Andy will have weaponry coming in midseason but might start off slow. In Round 8 he got his boy Pat Freiermuth. Pat F. did very well last year and managed a top 10 fantasy tight end finish in ppr (#8) despite only catching 2 touchdowns. I’m not sure if the addition of Georgia freak Darnell Washington will impact his positive td regression or not, but if Pickett can play at a higher level, then this could be a sneaky good pick for Andy here. In Round 9 Andy got one of my favorite players in the NFL in Jamaal Williams. Fresh off his crazy 17 touchdown season the former Packer and Lion joins the Saints who will need him during Kamara’s suspension and beyond. This gives Andy his RB#2 to start the year as long as Kendre Miller doesn’t do something stupid like win the starting rb job. Andy had great selections in Rounds 10 and 11. Bryce Young and Elijah Moore. Moore will be flex worthy right away in a revamped Browns passing attack. Young is a stash for the future since Andy can rely on Herbert now. In Round 12 Andy approached me to move up, so I told him I would for his 2024 4^th rounder, and he obliged. The reason he moved up? Rookie RB Chase Brown out of Illinois. Drafted in the 5^th round he’ll compete with Trayveon Williams and Chris Evans for the coveted Samaje Perine role behind starter Joe Mixon. There were a couple rumors that Mixon might be cut this offseason, but the Bengals stayed put. Brown graded out as a 59.1% on the Z-Prospect Score and drew comparisons to Lamar Miller and Jerick McKinnon. He is a little older for a rookie running back at 23 but did run a 4.43 at the combine. Was he worth the 4^th round pick and being drafted over Damien Harris, Khalil Herbert, and Samaje Perine? We’ll see, but I like the trade up to get your guy.

Roster Build Type: Win-Never.

Roster Construction Analysis:

His roster construction is interesting. I like the core of Herbert-Gibbs-Lamb. I like the WR depth with Ridley-Moore-Brown-Jameson Williams. In PPR he should be able to build a decent lineup each week. But worried at RB. Drafting Gibbs with Kamara puts too much need for Gibbs to get a ton of volume. With Montgomery there I don’t see the Lions just going straight bellcow right away. If Montgomery gets hurt and Jamaal Williams can replicate last year’s success, then maybe Andy can make the playoffs. For me the lack of running back depth paints this team as a mid-level team that I could see finishing as a 6^th-9^th seed this year. Might sneak into playoffs, but don’t seem him competing in year 1. Needs some running backs to hit in order to be competitive next season.

Overall Draft Grade: C-

Draft Grades By Draft Position:

Ian: B-
Oscar: C+
Brad: C+
Mike B: A-
Daniel: C+
Colton: B+
Mike D: D
Ollie: C
Adam: B+
Dom: D
Cuz: C-
Andy: C-

Draft Grades In Order (Highest to Lowest)

Mike B: A-
Adam: B+
Colton: B+
Ian: B-
Brad: C+
Daniel: C+
Oscar: C+
Ollie: C
Cuz: C-
Andy: C-
Dom: D
Mike D: D

Draft Grades By Division (Still Highest to Lowest)

Division 1:

Mike B: A-
Ian: B-
Ollie: C
Cuz: C-

Division 2:

Colton: B+
Brad: C+
Dom: D
Mike D: D

Division 3:

Adam: B+
Daniel: C+
Oscar: C+
Andy: C-

KeepTradeCut’s Dynasty Value Score for Each Team (Highest to Lowest)

Mike: 99
Ian: 95
Brad: 92
Mike D: 91
Adam: 90
Andy: 86
Daniel: 84
Oscar: 83
Colton: 83
Dom: 83
Ollie: 82
Cuz: 78

(Link to KeepTradeCut power rankings: https://keeptradecut.com/dynasty/power-rankings/league?leagueId=962791406014083072&platform=Sleeper)

Thank you for reading I look forward to everyone proving me wrong and increasing their hatred/directed shit talking my way as a result of these grades.

Sincerely,

Fantasy Football Brad

BBY Dream Team League S14 Round 2 Recap & Super Bowl 14 Preview

December 29, 2022 bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL Fantasy Football, NFL, Preview, Recap

Round 2 Recap:

Chase (7-7) 99.1 vs. 1. JD (11-3) 122.5

JD moves on the Super Bowl! He overcame some terrible play from Bam Knight on TNF (1.8), and questionably started Juwan Johnson in swirling 30 mph winds that felt like -10 degrees in Cleveland for some reason, but he was carried by his big 3: Patrick Mahomes 23.6, Austin Ekeler 21.9, and CeeDee Lamb 32.0. Chase had good performances out of Kirk Cousins 24.0, Travis Kelce 17.3, and his kicker Brett Maher with 18, but single digits for 6/9 starters and he failed to crack 100 points. A new champion will be crowned in Season 14.

Brad (10-4) 131.8 vs. 2. Tommy (10-4) 150.3

Tommy’s team balled out. Brad put up a solid and respectable 131.8, but it wasn’t enough. Tommy had Joe Burrow throw for 375 yards and 3 touchdowns for 26.5 fantasy points, Tom Brady decided to throw it to Lenny Fournette a thousand fucking times for 20.7 fantasy points, Derrick Henry did NOT rush for 200 yards, only 126 and a touchdown. Kittle caught 2 touchdowns for 30 points. Brad started the right tight end and got an extra 3 points for switching out his kicker, but shit. Brad was carried by his wideout duo of Waddle (27.8) and Justin Jefferson (28.3). Points Leader falls in the Semi’s. A new champion will be crowned in Season 14.

Bottom Bowl Recap:

Round 2

Game 1:

Joe 110.6 vs. Jen 112.0

Jen advances to Game 1 of Round 3 and is guaranteed either 5 or 6 balls in the draft lottery next year. Congrats Jen! Joe drops to Game 2 of Round 3 and will either have 3 or 4 balls in the draft lottery.

Game 2:

Katon 99 vs. Kenny 66.4

Katon advances to Game 1 of Round 3 and is guaranteed either 5 or 6 balls in the draft lottery next year. Congrats Katon! Kenny drops to Game 3 of Round 3 and will either have 2 or 1 ball in the draft lottery. Whomp whomp

Game 3:

Scotty 84.8 vs. Trey 86.0

Trey advances to Game 2 of Round 3 and will either have 3 or 4 balls in the draft lottery depending on if he beats Joe or not. Scotty drops to the bottom of the bottom to face Kenny with only 1 or 2 balls as the consolation prize.

SUPER BOWL 14 PREVIEW:

1.JD (11-3) vs. 2. Tommy (10-4)

JD and Tommy have never met in the post season. The closest they came was back in 2014 when they both made the Final Four. JD advanced to the Super Bowl, but Tommy did not, falling to the eventual champion Scotty in the Semi’s. JD is 0-2 in Super Bowls. Tommy is 0-1. The big story of this Super Bowl is Running Backs. JD had the 3^rd pick and picked Austin Ekeler. Tommy had the 5^th pick and took Derrick Henry. Austin Ekeler is currently RB #3 and Derrick Henry is currently RB #2. Both of these studs are at risk this week as Titans don’t have any reason to try against Dallas on TNF and will most likely bench Derrick Henry to save him for next week’s AFC South Crown matchup against Jacksonville. For JD Austin Ekeler banged up his knee on the last play of the game in the Chargers victory against the Colts on Monday Night Football. They have secured a playoff spot and will either be the 5, 6, or 7 seed, so rushing Ekeler back doesn’t make a lot of sense. Tommy won this matchup earlier this season in Week 5 149.5 to JD’s 106.5. Both of the studs mentioned went off in this matchup. Ekeler had 36.9 for JD and Henry had 29.2 for Tommy. This biggest difference in that game was Tommy’s RB2 Lenny Fournette scoring 30.9 versus JD’s RB2 James Robinson getting 4.9 AND Tommy’s Dallas D/ST getting 24.0 against the Rams versus JD’s Miami D/ST getting -1 against the Jets. Tommy started Kareem Hunt in the flex in that game, who scored a touchdown. With Henry listed as doubtful as of this writing, Tommy might have to go dumpster diving in the waiver wire or roll with Hunt yet again.

MATCHUPS:

Quarterback:

Tommy features #4 Qb Joe “Big Dick” Burrow against Buffalo on Monday Night Football. What more can you want? Your season potentially coming down to an AFC duel between Josh Allen’s Bills and Joe Burrow’s Bengals? It’s going to be epic. JD will have #1 Qb Patrick Mahomes who might be winning the MVP award this season. He faces a Denver team in disarray who fired their head coach this week. Their defense has been their only bright spot, but that didn’t stop Mahomes from throwing for 352 yards and 3 touchdowns against them just 3 weeks ago @ Denver. Two of the best dueling it out here.

Running Backs:

This was supposed to be #2 versus #3, Stud Rb versus Stud Rb. But now both are in doubt. I just got confirmation that Henry will be INACTIVE tonight versus Dallas. JD smartly picked up Tennessee backup rookie out of Michigan Hassan Haskins who will be playing in a garbage game against Dallas on TNF. He also picked up Khalil Herbert to block Tommy. Tommy looks as though he’s going to roll with his rostered running backs of #13 Leonard Fournette in a battle against the Panthers with the season on the line and Kareem Hunt in a tough matchup against Washington. Hunt hasn’t been flex worthy for most of this season and Nick Chubb will be playing, limiting Hunt’s potential. Tommy will hope for a touchdown. On JD’s side he’ll hold out hope for Austin Ekeler to play, but if he doesn’t he can turn to Joshua Kelley who JD picked up earlier this month with $4 of FAAB. Peace of Mind is worth $4 in fake money if you ask me. At Rb #2 JD has choices. He could roll with Hassan Haskins for a fun YOLO play, could roll with Zonovan Knight against Seattle with Mike White back at Qb, or could roll with Raheem Mostert in a divisional clash against New England. Nothing like your season potentially coming down to Zonovan, Hassan, or Raheem.

Wide Receivers:

Tommy will feature his duo of WR Freaks in #2 Tyreek Hill @ New England and #15 DK Metcalf versus Sauce Garnder and the NY Jets. Tyreek will have Teddy Bridgewater throwing passes to him since Tua is yet again concussed. In Week 1 Tyreek caught 8 passes on 12 targets for 94 yards and no touchdowns against NE. Tua to Teddy is a downgrade. DK might have Lockett back in the lineup, which could help relieve some double teams, but even single man against the Sauce will be difficult. As of right now Tommy has #19 Brandon Aiyuk in his flex spot against a very beatable Raiders secondary. He could pivot to #20 Zay Jones against the Texans. For JD he has #6 CeeDee Lamb against Tennessee’s backup defense. Lamb has been on fire the last 2 weeks going 7/7 for 126 yards in Week 15 against Jacksonville and 10/11 for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns in Week 16 against Philly. In my preseason write up I said Lamb had Top 5 WR potential this season and here he is at 6 and a smash spot in the Title game. He might only play the first half, but I could see him doing significant damage in that half against backups to a starting secondary that already isn’t very good. He’ll also have Keenan Allen. Allen after coming back from injury has been a target monster. Here are his stats over the past 4 games. 6/14 88 yards 1 touchdown, 12/14 92 yards, 8/9 86 yards, 11/14 104 yards. You read that correctly in 3 out of the last 4 games he’s gotten exactly 14 targets. The Rams are still starting Jalen Ramsey, but Ramsey could very well spend more time with Mike Williams, so who knows. Love his floor in this one. JD currently has #18 Garret Wilson in his flex position. With Mike White coming back from injury this has to give JD hope. With Mike White at Qb Wilson had games of 25.9 and 23.2 versus his last 2 games of Zach Wilson which were 11.8 and 3.0. He did see 9 targets in each of those games though, Zach Wilson just sucks.

Tight Ends:

Tommy has #3 George Kittle who has been destroying defenses lately. Easily Purdy’s top target as he has caught 4 touchdowns in the past 2 games, scoring games of 25.3 and 30.0. In come the Raiders 22^ndranked OPRK against Fantasy Tight Ends. Something to note though is they haven’t given up a touchdown pass to a tight end since Travis Kelce scored 4 of them back in Week 5. Interesting. JD has #11 Juwan Johnson as of this writing. He faces Philly. Johnson has scored 7 touchdowns this season, so we’ll see if he can go for #8 for JD in the Super Bowl.

Defense & Special Teams:

Tommy has #2 Dallas D/ST against Joshua Dobbs and Hassan Haskins on Thursday Night Football. If there is a silver lining of Tommy not having Derrick Henry, it’s that he can fire up Dallas D/ST confidently. Cowboys are projected to blowout the Titans. JD also has a favorable matchup with NY Giants against the Indianapolis Colts. Nick Foles looked downright awful against the Chargers on MNF throwing 3 interceptions. Giants also are getting back Xavier McKinney potentially, which could help.

Kicker:

Tommy scooped up Brad’s garbage in #5 Tyler Bass. Projected shootout on Monday Night Football @ Cincinnati. JD has #7 Graham Gano going up against Indy at home. Both solid kickers that should have ample opportunity this week.

Final Thoughts:

Great season to both of you. The payout structure is $750 to the winner and $200 to the runner-up. In the past the two teams have elected to change the payout amount to be closer. If you both message me and agree to a different amount then I shall make it so. Thank you all for another great season of the BBY Dream Team League. I look forward to seeing who wins their first title and will be fighting to defend it in Season 15.

Bottom Bowl Preview:

Round 3:

Game 1:

Katon vs. Jen

Congrats you two, you’ve already won 5 or 6 balls.

Game 2:

Joe vs. Trey

Both ended the year strong and will be playing for 3 or 4 balls in the draft lottery. Good luck gentlemen!

Game 3:

Scotty vs. Kenny

Two previous champions meet at the Bottom of the Bottom Bowl. Look forward to seeing you back in the playoff hunt next season. Winner gets 2 balls in draft lottery. Loser gets nothing.

Thank you all so much for a wonderful season. God Bless you.

Thanks,

Commish B-Razzle Dazzle

BBY Dream Team League S14 Round 1 Recap & Round 2 Preview

December 22, 2022 bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL Fantasy Football, NFL, Preview, Recap

Round 1 Recap:

This was the highest scoring Round 1 in the history of our league.

BYE: 1. JD, 2. Tommy

5.Chase (7-7) 156.4 vs. 4. Moose (8-6) 141.4

Chase advances to face the 1 seed JD after defeating Moose in a shootout 156.4 to 141.4. Moose didn’t get Dallas Goedert back in time and the result was a shootout anyway. But chase got 37.4 from Kirk Cousins, 27 from Dalvin Cook in their epic comeback win against the Colts. He got a solid 9.5 or more from every starter in a complete game. Moose had 5 players score in single digits, but still hung around with gutsy performances from Josh Allen (38.7), Barkley (20.5), AJ Brown (25.6) and Stevenson (26.8).

6.Mike (7-7) 131.6 vs. 3. Brad (10-4) 145.1

Brad started off with a 99+ point lead as 7/9 starters played prior to Sunday. Mike came roaring back and threatened until the bitter end, but wind up falling by 13.5 points. Brad moves on to face Tommy. Mike got a monster 30.2 game from Jerick McKinnon. Brad was carried by his big three with Jalen Hurts getting 37.7, Justin Jefferson getting 27.3 and CMC getting 23.9. He also had a long td catch by Jaylen Waddle, which got the big play bonus and put him over 100 yards receiving where he finished with 23.9.

Bottom Bowl:

Kenny (6-8) 80.2 vs. Jen (6-8) 103.6

Jen wins and advances to Game 1 of Round 2. Great spot to be. Kenny moves on to Game 2 of Round 2.

Joe (6-8) 95.1 vs. Trey (6-8) 82.0

Joe continues his epic win streak. He moves on to Game 1 of Round 2 and will get at least 3 balls in the draft lottery. Trey drops to Game 3 of Round 2 and has already capped his ball potential for next year.

Katon (3-11) 93.6 vs. Scotty (3-11) 78.0

Katon defeats Scotty to move to Round 2 Game 2. Scotty is already capped to a max of 4 balls in the lottery since he will be playing in Round 2 Game 3.

Round 2 Preview:

5.Chase (7-7) vs. 1. JD (11-3)

Chase is coming off of the second highest opening round score in the history of the league and enters Round 2 as a complete team. Chase and JD have never met in the playoffs. This bracket is shaping up a lot like 2014 where JD was the 1 seed and played the winner of the 4/5 game that featured Moose and Chase. Moose won back in 2014, but this time it’s Chase’s turn. JD won in the final four matchup in 2014. Let’s see if history will repeat itself. JD is searching for his first Title after losing in back to back Super Bowls in 2014 and 2015. Chase is seeking back to back Titles and his 4^th Championship this season.

Quarterbacks:

Chase has 8. Kirk Cousins is coming off of back to back 30+ point fantasy performances and this week he gets the Giants at home. JD features #2 Patrick Mahomes vs. Seattle. Seattle’s secondary is young, but they give up a lot of fantasy points to running backs and tight ends. Which benefits Chase who has Kelce.

Running Backs:

Chase has 8. Dalvin Cook vs. the Giants who are 23^rd OPRK and JK Dobbins with a plus matchup against Atlanta. It’s going to be cold and miserable in Baltimore as it is in much of the US, so I expect a lot of runs in this game. JD will finish things off with #4 Austin Ekeler vs. Indianapolis in Indy on Monday Night Football. He will either start Bam Knight who faces Jacksonville in a bad weather game on Thursday Night Football or pivot to Raheem Mostert against Green Bay in Miami. Bam is fun to say, but not if he’s Banged Up.

Wide Receivers:

Talent all over the place. Chase with #7 Amon-Ra St. Brown versus a beatable Carolina team on Saturday. Weather looks to be freezing temperatures, but some of the best in the slate because everywhere else is garbage weather. #25 JuJu will be in the Seattle game. I mentioned earlier Seattle locks down Wideouts, but get’s destroyed by Running backs and Tight Ends. Chase will also have #23 Michael Pittman on MNF vs. LA Chargers OR DeAndre Hopkins vs. Tampa Bay on SNF. Indy has announced a Qb change from Matt Ryan to Nick Folk, which I’m not sure if that helps or hurts the Colts. Dizzle has #8 CeeDee Lamb in a pivotal divisional matchup against Philly on Saturday. He also has #17 Garrett Wilson vs. Jacksonville on TNF. Weather looks like shit, but Wilson has been a target machine in the last 4 weeks, averaging nearly 10 targets per game. JD also has Keenan Allen on MNF in a tough matchup against Indianapolis. Indy’s secondary is solid until they completely fall apart and give up 36 second half points.

Tight Ends:

Clear advantage to Chase with #1 Travis Kelce. Kelce is the equivalent of WR or Rb #5. He gets a great matchup against Seattle this week. He averages 17.7 points per game. Its like Chase rolling out Nick Chubb or Saquon Barkley in his TE spot. Dizzle has been streaming Tight Ends and just dropped Daniel Bellinger to pick up TD magnet Juwan Johnson. Johnson is projected to play in Cleveland this weekend with snow projected pregame and in game. Temps in the teens with 20-30 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 40 mph. Juwan has broken a lot of long touchdowns this season, we’ll see if he can do it while playing a game in Hell.

Defense & Special Teams:

Chase is rolling with 14. Cleveland D/ST in the winter hell game. Look for a lot of runs and for people to try and get the hell out of there. Low scoring, slippery football. Could be great for a D/ST. JD has Ten D/ST against Houston. Houston has been formidable the past couple weeks against Dallas and Kansas City. Hanging in games they shouldn’t. Not sure if it will continue as the way to exploit Tennessee is to pass against them. We’ll see.

Kicker:

#5 Brett Maher for Chase in a great game against Philly. Could very well come down to a field goal or two. JD has #10 Graham Gano in a dome in Minnesota. A favorable situation give the weather this weekend.

3.Brad (10-4) vs. 2. Tommy (10-4)

Super Bowl 3 Rematch. Brad defeated Tommy by 1 point on a last minute play in which Drew Brees broke the touchdown record on a touchdown to Brad’s Darren Sproles. Brad is 3-10 against Tommy all time. 2 of those wins have come in the playoffs.

Quarterbacks:

Brad HAD #1 Qb Jalen Hurts who had scored at least 30 points in 4 consecutive weeks. Then it was determined that he hurt his shoulder in his game against Chicago. Hurts is saying he might still play this weekend, but it looks like it’s going to be Minshew this week against Dallas. Tommy had saved up his FAAB and smartly picked up the Top 3 backup Qb options putting #15 bids on each one as Brad only had #14 FAAB remaining. Brad is horrible at managing FAAB specifically in this league. This led him to pick up Brock Purdy against a really tough Washington Defense. Purdy has thrown 2 touchdowns in each of the last 3 games. Brad is hoping for a miracle to have Hurts available, if not he’ll roll with the Purdy-CMC stack. Tommy has his choice of Joe Burrow or Justin Fields…. Or Aaron Rodgers or Zach Wilson or Gardner Minshew lol. He’ll most likely roll with #4 Joe Burrow against New England. They are pretty good against the pass, but Burrow is Burrow.

Running Backs:

Brad has all 3 of his Rb’s starting on Saturday with #5 Nick Chubb vs. New Orleans in a snow game, Isaih Pacheco against Seattle’s #31 OPRK, and #3 CMC against a stiff Washington Defense. Nick Chubb is nursing a foot injury and hasn’t practiced as of this write up. If Chubb misses that could be disastrous for Brad since Tommy holds Kareem Hunt who would become an instant starter. Tommy has #2 Derrick Henry vs. Houston. In Henry’s last 4 games against Houston he has rushed for: 32-219-2, 34-250-2, 22-212-2, and 32-211-3. And Tannehill is projected to miss. Houston is #32 OPRK. I’ve scribbled in 30 in this spot. Tommy will also have #14 Leonard Fournette against Arizona. He took a 2/3 snap share last week over rookie Rashad White, which I’m sure Tommy would love to see continue this week.

Wide Receivers:

Brad has a dynamic duo in #1 Justin Jefferson against the NY Giants and #6 Jaylen Waddle vs. Green Bay in Miami. JJ has a chance to break Calvin Johnson’s receiving yardage record, so look for his normal studly amount despite him working through a chest contusion. Tommy features the top Dolphin wideout #2 Tyreek Hill. Tyreek has been more consistent and has been balling out all season for the Dolphins. Classis Waddle vs. Tyreek matchup this week. Tommy also has #14 WR DK Metcalf against KC’s #27 OPRK. Tyler Lockett broke a finger last week and will miss this game, meaning more targets for Metcalf. Things are looking up for Tommy. He also has #19 WR Zay Jones playing on TNF as of this write up. Zay has been on fire lately and has scored 4 touchdowns in the past 2 weeks. He may be matched up against rookie phenom Sauce Gardner in a bad weather game. Tommy could pivot to #21 Brandon Aiyuk who has a tough matchup against Washington.

Tight Ends:

Brad has either David Njoku in a terrible weather game against a tough New Orleans team or Greg Dulcich against the Rams. Greg was looking good, but his volume has dropped. Tommy gets #5 Greg Kittle who is coming off of his best game of the season last week. But this week he faces Washington who are the best team in the league in stopping opposing Tight Ends. This position looks to be a disaster for both teams this week.

Defense & Special Teams:

Brad has #6 Bills D/ST with injuries, bad weather, and Justin Fields on the opposite side of the field. Bills D/ST hasn’t scored a touchdown since week 2. Tommy has #2 Dallas D/ST They were looking amazing until the past couple of weeks where Houston and Jacksonville were able to score a bunch against them.

Kicker:

Brad has #2 Tyler Bass against Chicago as of this write up. He might pivot since it will be so cold in Chicago that when Bass tries to kick the ball it might crack in half. Tommy has #7 Greg Zuerlein who will be playing in rain and wind, but it won’t be as cold. I have very little expectations out of this group as well.

Bottom Bowl Preview:

Round 2

Game 1:

Joe vs. Jen

Winner moves on to Game 1 of Round 3 and is guaranteed 5 or 6 balls. Loser goes to Game 2 of Round 3 and is guaranteed 3 or 4 balls.

Game 2:

Katon vs. Kenny

Winner moves on to Game 1 of Round 3 and is guaranteed 5 or 6 balls. Loser goes to Game 3 and will be playing in the Bottom of the Bottom Bowl with only a chance to win 2 balls.

Game 3:

Scotty vs. Trey

Winner moves on to Game 2 of Round 3 and is guaranteed 3 or 4 balls. Loser goes to Game 3 and will be playing in the Bottom of the Bottom Bowl with only a chance to win 2 balls.

Thanks,

Commish

BBY Dream Team League S14 Week 14 Recap & Playoffs Round 1 Preview

December 14, 2022 bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL, Rankings Fantasy Football, NFL, Preview, Recap

Week 14 Recap:

Division 1:

Mike (7-7) 107.7 vs. Tommy (10-4) 113.2

Tommy clinches the #2 Seed in the playoffs and a first-round bye! Congratulations Tommy! This put Mike on edge and susceptible to lose his playoff spot if another team went off and caught him for points. Lucky for him there were some low scoring stinker games and he gets to make the playoffs despite losing. This game was close. Mike went into Monday Night Football needing 26.5 from NE D/ST. When Kyler Murray was knocked out of the game it looked as though it was possible. They scored a respectable 21 points, but not enough to overcome Tommy’s lead. Mike lost Tee Higgins to injury early in the Cleveland game and that 0 really hurt. Tommy had a decent outing, with Joe Burrow’s 16.4, Henry’s 22, Tyreek’s 24.1, DK Metcalf’s 15.6 and Brandon Aiyuk catching a touchdown from Brock Purdy for 12.7. Tommy gets to sit back and relax next week and enjoy his first round bye. He’ll play the winner of Mike and Brad in Round 2.

Joe (6-8) 138.8 vs. Chase (7-7) 114.9

Joe has been the hottest team in the league over the last 3 weeks. He swept his division bringing his divisional record to an incredible 5-1 on the season. He went 1-7 in non-divisional games. His team was just piling touchdowns on Chase this week. Geno threw for 3, Pollard scored 2, Perine scored 1, Chase scored 1, Jeudy, scored 3, and even Cam Akers got 1. Chase had a solid week with every one of his players scoring at least 8 points. Kirk Cousins threw for 400 yards and scored 30 fantasy points. This 30 point game from the Qb position was Chase’s highest scoring Qb BY FAR this season. It’s been a glaring weak spot and the week he finally hits a winner, he runs into a Touchdown gauntlet. He still makes the playoffs though. Joe takes his 3 game winning streak into the bottom bowl on a quest to get more balls in the draft lottery in 2023.

Division 2:

Katon (3-11) 106.6 vs. JD (11-3) 90.2

The worst place team in the league defeats the #1 Seed in the league. Because this is fantasty football. JD’s team shit the bed when it mattered least. He had already locked up the 1 seed. His 2 studs performed well with Mahomes getting 22.7 and Ekeler getting 20.4, but the rest of his starters disappointed. Katon pulled off the upset with monster games out of his peripherals. Specifically Evan Engram who had a ridiculous game against Tennessee. Engram caught 11 catches on 15 targets for 162 yards and 2 touchdowns. Good for 36.7 points. Bottom Bowl needs to look out for Katon.

Jen (7-7) 81.3 vs. Kenny (6-8) 59.3

Both teams had a chance. They needed to win and score a significant more than Mike. It just didn’t happen. These two teams will meet again in the first game of the bottom bowl. They had to piece together starters for this one. Jen got decent production out of James Conner who scored 20.4, but no one else scored more than 12.1 and 3 players scored less than 5. Kenny had 7/9 starters score in single digits and his highest scorer was Tua with 12.6. Just complete disappointment from every position. He’ll try to bounce back on his quest to improve his odds for a higher draft pick next season.

Division 3:

Brad (10-4) 143.9 vs. Trey (6-8) 91.0

The expected result was the actual result. Brad had some great matchups and his team delivered, knocking out any hope that Trey had to making the postseason. Brad was carried by his 3 headed monster of Jalen Hurts (30.3), Christian McCaffrey (31.3) and Justin Jefferson (32.8). These three players combined for 94.4 and was enough to defeat Trey and push Brad to victory. Trey had huge games out of Jared Goff (29.1) and Miles Sanders (31.0), but the rest of his 7 starters combined for a pathetic 30.9 points. Not enough against this weeks’ top scoring team.

Scotty (3-11) 65.4 vs. Moose (8-6) 89.5

Moose defeats Scotty in a low scoring affair and despite losing two more players to injuries. Moose hobbles into the playoffs as the 4 seed. Scotty’s team just shit the bed. DJ Moore got hurt, Tyler Boyd hurt his finger and left the game after 2 snaps, and Deebo got hurt. Scotty’s Rb’s didn’t score touchdowns. Only bright spot was Justin Herbert getting a respectable 22.4. To the Bottom Bowl for the AutoDraft team. Moose had 4 players score 5.8 or less including two goose eggs from his tight end and kicker. He did get respectable numbers from Josh Allen (20.5), AJ Brown (15), DJ Chark (18.4) and KC D/ST (16). Enough to get him the win and set up a juicy Round 1 matchup with Chase.

Playoff Preview!

Playoff Teams Playoff Histories:

*Playoff appearances include this year

JD: Playoff Appearances: 7, Playoff Record 3-5, SB Record 0-2, Avg. Playoffs PF: 106.5
Tommy: Playoff Appearances: 7, Playoff Record 3-5, SB Record 0-1, Avg. Playoffs PF: 112.3
Brad: Playoff Appearances: 10, Playoff Record 11-8, SB Record 2-3, Avg. Playoffs PF: 118.8
Moose: Playoff Apperances: 9, Playoff Record 13-4, SB Record 4-0, Avg. Playoffs PF: 122.7
Chase: Playoff Appearances: 9, Playoff Record 8-6, SB Record 3-1, Avg. Playoffs PF: 118.1
Mike: Playoff Apperances: 5, Playoff Record 4-4, SB Record 0-2, Avg. Playoffs PF: 104.3

Round 1 Preview:

Bye Week Teams: 1. JD (11-3), 2. Tommy (10-4)

4.Moose (8-6) vs. 5. Chase (7-7)

Holy shitballs here we go again! Moose and Chase have met in the playoffs 4 times. Moose won the first 3 matchups in 2014, 2017, and 2018. Both the 2014 and 2017 matchups were in the 4^th/5^th seed matchup. In 2018 it was Super Bowl 10 where Moose defeated Chase 145.5 to 124.1. Chase ended Moose’s playoff win streak against him last season in the Semifinals. Chase won 157.1 to 84.5 on his way to the Super Bowl where he won his 3^rd title. And here we are again in 2022. Moose has won 4 Super Bowls. Chase has won 3 Super Bowls. Both are fighting for a chance to meet up with the #1 Seed JD. Earlier this season when these two teams met, Moose looked unbeatable. He came in 5-0 and was averaging a ridiculous 149.8 points per game. But Chase was not deterred. He defeated Moose and handed him his first loss of the season 134.9 to 115.7. A lot’s happened since Week 6, but the biggest story is the injuries to Moose’s team. He hobbles into the playoffs after losing 4 out of his last 5 and averaging only 88.1 points per game in that span. That makes sense considering he’s lost his 1^stround and 5^th round picks for the season, your 6^th round pick for 5 games, and in the last game of the regular season have injuries occur to your 6^th and 7^th round picks. Chase enters the playoffs having lost 3 in a row. In those 3 weeks he averaged 104.2 points per game but had a crazy average of 144.9 points scored against him in that span.

The Matchups:

Qb: Chase will be looking at #12 Qb Kirk Cousins vs. Indianapolis, Deshaun Watson vs. Baltimore, or Derek Carr vs. NE or maybe someone else as his Qb this week. Moose will be starting #3 Josh Allen vs. Miami on Saturday.

Rb: Chase will have #10 Dalvin Cook vs. Indianapolis and D’onta Foreman vs. Pittsburgh. Moose will have #7 Saquon Barkley vs. Washington and Rashad White vs. Cincinnati. Moose typically starts 3 running backs, but he’ll have to monitor the health of #13 Rhamondre Stevenson who hurt his ankle on MNF, but has a great matchup against Las Vegas Raiders on the horizon if he can suit up. It looks like he won’t have rookie #14 Dameon Pierce who is doubtful with an ankle injury.

Wr: Chase has #6 Amon-Ra St. Brown @ NY Jets, #25 JuJu Smith-Schuster @ Houston, and DeAndre Hopkins @ Denver. Chase also has #24 Michael Pittman as an option, but JuJu is coming off a solid effort against Denver where he went for 9 catches on 11 targets for 74 yards and a touchdown. Moose has #5 AJ Brown @Chicago and Curtis Samuel vs. the Giants.

TE: Chase #1 TE Travis Kelce against the Houston Texans. Moose is hoping to have Dallas Goedert back who was a Top 5 tight end before being injured in Week 10. He’s been designated to return from IR, but we’ll see if they use him this week or not. If not Moose has talented rookie Chigoziem Okonkwo who has at least 5 targets in the last 3 games and scored a touchdown last week against the Jaguars.

D/ST: Chase has #3 Philly who is averaging 11.7 fantasy points per game and has gotten at least 11 points in 5 of the last 7 games they’ve played. This week they get the electric Justin Fields. Moose has #12 KC D/ST who averages 8.7 points per game, but has averaged 10 points per game in the last 6 games and gets a Houston team that gave up 3 touchdowns to the Browns D/ST a couple of weeks ago. We’ll see which Houston team the Chiefs get this week, the one that was blownout by the Browns or the one that almost beat the Dallas Cowboys last week.

K: Chase has #6 Brett Maher @ Jax. Moose has #14 Ryan Succop vs. Cincinnati. Both teams have kickers kicking in Florida this weekend.

7 Championships. 2 Teams. 1 Winner. Who will advance to face JD and who will have their season ended at the hands of their bitter Rival??!?!

3.Brad (10-4) vs. 6. Mike (7-7)

Super Bowl 1 Rematch! Going old school over here. Brad and Mike played each other in back-to-back playoffs. Super Bowl 1 where Brad defeated Mike 120-104 on the back of Atlanta D/ST who he picked up and in Season 2, the 2010 season when Mike defeated Brad in the first round 85-75. In both of those games Mike was the higher seed, but in this year’s matchup Brad comes in at the 3 seed. These teams met in Week 4 and had themselves a battle. The final wind-up being Brad 120.6 vs. Mike 115.8. Mike had replaced an injured Dak Prescott with Carson Wentz who put up a stinker of 7.3 points. Dalton Schultz scored 0 against Washington, but Mike got 26.9 from Tee Higgins. CMC had scored 21.3 for Brad as a member of the Carolina Panthers.

The Matchups:

Qb: Brad has #2 Jalen Hurts who is averaging 26.6 points per game and looks like an MVP front runner going up against Chicago Defense that traded away their two best pass rushers and lost their star safety for the season. Mike will have #25 Qb Dak Prescott with a juicy ass matchup against Jacksonville. The Jaquars have given up an average of 21.7 points to opposing fantasy Qb’s. This has shootout potential and puts Mike in a good spot.

Rb: Brad has #4 Christian McCaffrey against Mike’s favorite team, the #31 OPRK Seattle Seahawks. Deebo Samuel got injured last week. The last game Deebo Samuel missed CMC ran, threw, and caught touchdowns and scored 36.1 fantasy points against the LA Rams. I don’t want to come across too cocky, but CMC alone might beat Mike this week. Brad also has #5 Rb Nick Chubb vs. Baltimore. The last time he played Baltimore was Week 7 and he rushed for 16 times for 91 yards and a touchdown for 17.7 fantasy points. Over the last 4 games Chubb’s utilization has increased a bit on passing downs including 47% of snaps in the two-minute offense. Brad also has Isaih Pacheco. He gets Houston’s #32 OPRK who just gave up 3 touchdowns to Zeke and Tony Pollard last week. Mike has the dynamic duo at Rb that Brad talked shit about in his draft grades in #1 Josh Jacobs vs. New England and #18 Najee Harris vs. Carolina. The Patriots are tough against the run but have given up rushing touchdowns to running backs in back to back weeks. James Conner rushed for over 80 yards and a touchdown against them on MNF. This matchup also adds the spice of Josh McDaniels going up against the Patriots where he served under Bill Belicheck for several years as offensive coordinator. Najee’s utilization has been consistent, and he’s scored 4 touchdowns for the last 4 weeks. Mike also has options on his bench for the flex with Jerick McKinnon who is coming off of a monster game last week where he scored 33.9 fantasy points and has the same matchup as Pacheco against the Texans. He also has Chuba Hubbard who was more efficient last week than D’Onta Foreman with 14 rushes for 74 yards a touchdown. Will Brad’s CMC explode? Or will Josh Jacobs and Najee Harris get the ultimate revenge against Brad’s draft grades?

WR: Brad has #1 Wr Justin Jefferson who is coming off a monster 223 yard performance and faces the tough and scrappy Indy defense. Brad won’t bench JJ, but his expectations for this week are definitely lower. Brad also has #10 Jaylen Waddle. Waddle has had two bad games in a row and is averaging only 5.4 points per game over his last 3 games. This week he travels to Buffalo for a snow game on Saturday. We’ll see if Brad pivots or sticks with his top 2 wideouts. Mike has Target vacuum Chris Godwin against Cincy’s decent defense. He has 16. Tee Higgins @ Tampa Bay. Maybe. Tee hasn’t been healthy. Last game he played 1 snap. His hammy is messed up. Mike will most likely need to turn to Diontae Johnson. His upside has been limited by the Steelers lack of offensive production, but over the last 5 weeks he’s gotten at least 5 target in each game and at least 4 catches in each game, setting up a decent floor for Mike. Mike could also turn to Donovan People-Jones who has scored in double digits 4 out of the last 5 games including last week where he caught 8 balls on 12 targets for 114 yards and 18.4 fantasy points.

TE: Brad has a tough decision on athletic freak #10 David Njoku against Baltimore or rookie Greg Dulcich who has a great matchup against Arizona (#31 OPRK), but will most likely have Brett Rypien at Qb this week. In the last two games that Njoku has played he has scored a touchdown, so Brad will probably ride the hot hand. Mike also has a choice between #15 Dalton Schultz and #12 Gerald Everett. Both have good matchups. Schultz has Jacksonville who gave up a touchdown to Okonkwo last week. Or Everett who is facing a Titans team that was just destroyed by Evan Engram last week.

D/ST: Brad has #5 Buffalo going up against the potent Miami offense in a snow game. Brad will monitor weather conditions and make a determination as he gets closer to kick off on Saturday. Mike has #1 NE who gets their former offensive coordinator’s squad in Josh McDaniels. I’m sure New England will be motivated to stop him.

K: Brad has #T1 Kicker Tyler Bass in the snow game against Miami. What could go wrong? Mike has #T1 Kicker Daniel Carlson in that New England matchup. He’s been money this year if the Raiders can move the ball and get him in range.

Super Bowl 1 Rematch. Let’s do this.

Bottom Bowl Preview:

8.Kenny (6-8) vs. 7. Jen (6-8)

This looks familiar. Kenny and Jen rematch to see who goes to Game 1 of Round 2 of the Bottom Bowl. That means the winner of this game will be guaranteed at least 3 balls in the draft lottery next year. The loser is guaranteed nothing.

10.Joe (6-8) vs. 9. Trey (6-8)

Big game. Winner is guaranteed at least 3 balls in the draft lottery. The loser is eliminated from Game 1 of Round 3, which means the most balls they could win is 4. A lot at stake for the draft lottery next year in this matchup.

12.Katon (3-11) vs. 11. Scotty (3-11)

The winner will move on to Game 2 of Round 2, which has a chance to make it to Game 1 of Round 3 to battle for 6 balls. The loser will be in Game 3 of Round 2, meaning they can’t get more than 4 balls in the draft lottery. Keep fighting!

Best of luck!

-Commish

BBY Dream Team S14 Week 13 Recap, Week 14 Preview, & Playoff Scenarios

December 6, 2022December 6, 2022 bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL Fantasy Football, NFL, Preview, Recap

Week 13 Recap:

Division 1:

Mike (7-6) 102.4 vs. Joe (4-8) 139.8

Joe continues to play spoiler! Joe gets his highest scoring game of the season with Geno Smith getting 25.9, Tony Pollard 23.6, Perine 21.5, Akers 18.5, SF D/ST 22 (Against Miami!). Those five players combined for 111.5, enough to beat Mike’s team. Mike got 16.2 from Trevor Lawrence, 23 from Josh Jacobs and double digits from 7/9 players, but nobody went off and 7/9 scored 11.9 or less. It was a solid effort, but Joe’s team just kept scoring touchdowns. Mike will now have to face the D1 Winner Tommy to secure a playoff spot. Tommy is fighting for the 2 seed and a bye in the playoffs.

Tommy (9-4) 137.0 vs. Chase (7-6) 82.8

Tommy clinches the Division 1 Crown after Mike and Chase both lose! Tommy scored a really solid 137 points. He had disappointing game from Derrick Henry (4.8) but the rest of his studs did their thing. Joe Burrow got 30 and moved to 3-0 against the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. Tyreek Hill got 28.1, DK Metcalf got 25.7 and he even got 21 from Dallas D/ST. On Chase’s side he had a rough week. Watson looked rusty as hell in his first game action in 700 days. (5.3 points). 6/9 players scored in single digits including 6 players that scored 5.6 or less. His lone bright spot was Amon-Ra St. Brown. The alpha wide receiver caught 11 catches for 114 yards and 2 touchdowns for 32.1 points. Tommy locks in D1, but has his sights on a bye. Chase will look to clinch a playoff spot in Week 14 against suddenly surging Joe.

Division 2:

JD (11-2) 144.8 vs. Jen (6-7) 88.3

I didn’t even mention Cleveland D/ST in my preview for this week and they wind up being the story. The top scorer in this game with 31 points, they scored 3 touchdowns against the Texans and accounted for 4 turnovers. The interesting thing about their 3 scores is they got one of each. On interception return for a touchdown, one fumble return for a touchdown, and one punt return for a touchdown. Insane. JD got 19.7 from Patrick Mahomes, 14.3 from new addition Zonovan Knight, 23.2 from Garret Wilson, 17.9 from CeeDee Lamb, and 17.8 from Keenan Allen. JD is getting hot at the right time as we approach the playoffs. Jen is still alive in the playoff hunt, but ESPN gives her a 1% chance.

Katon (2-11) 110.1 vs. Kenny (6-7) 115.2

Heading into MNF with Kenny’s season on the line (sort of), it was virtually tied with Katon having 105.4 and Kenny having 105.2. Katon had Alvin Kamara left and Kenny had kicker Wil Lutz. ESPN gave Katon a 72% chance of winning prior to gametime. Wil Lutz went 3/3 from on field goals and Kamara was used sparingly. Saints opted to use Mark Ingram more despite him getting hurt. Saints collapsed and lost the game, but Kenny emerged victorious. ESPN gives Kenny an 8% chance to making the playoffs. I’ll discuss more in the playoff scenario section. Kenny was carried by Davante Adams 8 catch 177 yard 2 touchdown explosion for 36.7 points. He also got a solid 19.1 from D’Andre Swift. Most of his team underperformed, but he got the job done. Katon got 18.7 from Stefon Diggs and 18 from kicker Robbie Gould, but just got barely edged out in this one. Had he started Devonta Smith (21.7) instead of Zeke in the flex the game would have ended 115.2 to 115.2 tie. Kenny would have still gotten the victory because the tie breaker is Qb points as originally set by League Founder and my Dad’s coworker at Community Coffee Wendell.

Division 3:

Moose (7-6) 99.7 vs. Trey (6-7) 105.5

Peripheral Bowl it twas! Heading into Monday Night Football Moose held a slim lead of 94.7 to Trey’s 93.2. Moose had Tampa Bay kicker Ryan Succop and Trey had Taysom Hill. ESPN gave Moose a 57% chance of victory. Moose got things started in the 1^st Quarter with a chip shot field goal. But in the 2^nd Quarter Andy Dalton found a wide-open Taysom Hill for a 30 yard touchdown. Moose has lost 4 in a row and Trey has won 2 in a row to stay alive. Trey won despite losing Lamar Jackson to any early knee injury. He finished with only 1.3 points. He was carried by Tyler Lockett’s 26.3 and Christian Watson’s 22.9. Watson scored a rushing and a receiving touchdown and looks like the real deal in Green Bay. Moose had solid efforts from the Top of his lineup with Allen’s 16.8, Barkley’s 16.6, Stevenson’s 10.8, and AJ Brown’s 30.9 in a revenge game against the team that traded him during the draft. But it was Moose’s peripherals and WR 2 that struggled, with the 4 of them combining for only 13.6 points. Despite the loss, ESPN says Moose has clinched a playoff spot, locking him into the 4^th, 5^th, or 6^th seed. Trey will be hoping for a miracle in Week 14.

Scotty (3-10) 79.2 vs. Brad (9-4) 126.2

Scotty started Joe Mixon who was inactive and DJ Moore who was on a bye week. So that’s shitty. As commissioner I want to remind everyone to please set your lineups. Even when you are eliminated. There are going to be 6 teams playing for money at the end of the season and what happens at the end of the season has playoff seeding implications. Now in this situation if Scotty just moved pieces around and started Patterson for Mixon and Evans for Moore he still would have lost to Brad, but if the end of the season rankings came down to this it could make someone really upset. Please set your lineups folks. Brad was carried by Jalen Hurts 37.4. He looked like the MVP of the season as he sliced and diced the Titans defense. Christian McCaffrey looked good against Miami, getting 24.6 fantasy points including an 8-80-1 receiving line on the day. Brad got nice production out of Pacheco (15.2) and Jefferson (15.1) despite getting pretty much nothing out of Jaylen Waddle (1.4). Scotty got 21.1 from Justin Herbert and decent production from his peripherals who combined for 31.3.

Week 14 Preview:

Last Game of the Regular Season!

Division 1:

Mike (7-6) vs. Tommy (9-4)

Mike is fighting to stay in the hunt. Tommy is fighting to get a bye. Everything at stake. In their Week 3 meeting Tommy won 105.9 to 75.3. Mike will feature Dak Prescott vs. Houston. Houston is #3 OPRK against fantasy Qbs. Most teams just run on them. But two weeks ago they even held Tua to 15.8 fantasy points. Mike will also have #21 Rb Najee Harris against Baltimore. Baltimore is #6 OPRK against Rbs. #1 Rb Josh Jacobs faces the LA Rams. Who despite being horrific have been decent stopping the run this season. WR #14 Tee Higgins faces Cleveland. Cleveland defense is very beatable. In Week 8 he had 3 catches on 6 targets for 49 yards and a touchdown against them. Mike will need more than that. He’ll also have Target-Vacuum Chris Godwin @ San Fran. Tyreek was able to get his against San Fran, but Waddle was shut down last week. The bigger story is the giant mismatch of San Fran defensive line vs. Tampa’s offensive line. Brady may want to rethink retirement after this week, but it could lead to more check downs to running backs and perhaps, Chris Godwin. Dalton Schultz is in the Houston matchup. Right now Mike has DPJ in the flex against Cincy. Cincy is #4 OPRK to Fantasy Wrs, but the over/under might be tempting (opened at 49, currently at 47/47.5 depending on which sportsbook you’re looking at). Don’t overlook Mike’s #2 D/ST NE who averages 12.5 points per game or his kicker #4 Daniel Carlson who averages 9.4. On Tommy’s side he has #4 Qb Joe Burrow versus Cleveland. Cleveland is 11^th OPRK, but I think that has more to do with how bad their run defense is rather than how good their pass defense is. #2 Derrick Henry has been trending down in fantasy points the last 3 weeks 24.2-13.2-4.8, but in comes Jacksonville. The Jags just gave up a big week to the Swift/Williams combo in Detroit. This could be a get right game for Henry heading into the final stretch. At Rb 2 Tommy will most likely roll with Rb #16 Uncle Lenny. Fournette has lost the starting gig to rookie Rashad White, but against the Saints they split RB touches pretty evenly. He’s facing San Fran’s #1 OPRK, so Tommy is hoping for lots of catches and possibly a touchdown to make Fournette worth it. At Wideout Tommy has #4 Tyreek Hill @ LA Chargers. This game was flexed to Sunday Night Football and features the highest over under of the week at 52.5 points. #16 DK Metcalf gets Carolina. #9 TE George Kittle and #19 Brandon Aiyuk square off against Tampa Bay, but they have Brock Purdy at Qb. Deebo might get more rushes, but we’ll see how it impacts Kittle and Aiyuk down the stretch. Don’t over look Tommy’s defense #1 Dallas. They face Houston, the same Houston that Cleveland D/ST scored 3 times against to the tune of 31 fantasy points. Anything can happen, but this matchup screams Tommy steam roll.

Joe (5-8) vs. Chase (7-6)

Chase is pretty much in. It would be a freak miracle for him to miss. He faces a red hot Joe team. In Joe’s run he was starting Samaje Perine. Joe Mixon should be back this week. He may stick with Perine, but don’t look for him to continue his recent success. Joe does have favorable matchups elsewhere however. Including #7 Qb Geno Smith vs. Carolina, #7 Rb Tony Pollard vs. Houston, #18 Wr Ja’Marr Chase vs. Cleveland, Adam Thielen vs. Detroit, Cam Akers vs. LV. He also has #2 Tight End Mark Andrews against Pittsburgh. Andrews did well with replacement Quarterbacks last season and should receive his normal production level. On Chase’s side he’s hoping Deshaun Watson can shake off the rust against Division foe Cincinnati. They just bested Patrick Mahomes, so Sir Jerks a Lot has his work cut out for him. Chase will rely on the Rb duo of #9 Dalvin Cook vs. Detroit and D’Onta Foreman versus Seattle’s #30 OPRK. He also has #7 Amon-Ra St. Brown against Minnesota, DeAndre Hopkins against New England, and of course #1 Travis Kelce @ Denver. Should be a great matchup. Joe is playing for seeding in the Bottom Bowl. Chase is playing to secure his playoff spot. There are 3 teams at 6-7 rooting for Joe this week.

Division 2:

Katon (2-11) vs. JD (11-2)

The worst versus the best. Neither team is playing for anything this week. Katon has locked in a game at the bottom of the bottom bowl against Scotty. JD has locked into the 1 seed and is most likely out of reach of points leader. You guys can just relax and enjoy football this week. JD will be hoping his core of Patrick Mahomes, Austin Ekeler, and CeeDee Lamb all stay healthy. As well as Garrett Wilson who is looking like a potential league winner. JD will basically have two bye weeks in a row. This matchup doesn’t impact seeding and next week he’ll be on a bye.

Jen (6-7) vs. Kenny (6-7)

THIS matchup however does have some spice to it. One of these teams will be 7-7. If Mike or Chase loses then there will at least be a tie in records of 7-7 to determine the 6^th seed. Jen is hoping for Mike and Chase to both lose and for her to score 70 more points than Mike this week. Kenny is hoping to win, Mike and Chase to lose and for him to stay higher in points than Mike. Gonna be tricky. Of course Jen will have to completely rebuild her team this week due to bye weeks. She’ll be without #8 Rb Aaron Jones, #20 Rb Antonio Gipson, #13 WR Terry McLaurin, #15 WR Chris Olave, and she’ll have to monitor the health of #14 Rb Kenneth Walker who “jammed” his ankle. After she reconstructs her roster she’ll have James Conner versus New England and Kenneth Walker vs. Carolina if Walker can’t go she’ll have to pick up a Rb off of Free Agency to start this week. At WR she’ll have #24 Gabe Davis against the Jets. She’ll have to get another wideout on free agency to start this week. Bit of a project and doesn’t bode well for Jen’s 1% chance of making the playoffs. On Kenny’s side he’s not exactly a clean bill of health either. He’ll be without his kicker and defense due to bye weeks, but at Qb he lost Jimmy G for the season. He’ll turn to #12 Tua in a shootout versus LA Chargers, but he tweaked his ankle at the end of the game against San Fran, something to monitor. #23 Devin Singletary looks like the 3^rd best Rb for the Bills behind emerging rookie James Cook and 3^rd down specialist Nyheim Hines. #25 Jeff Wilson Jr has a great matchup in that LA Chargers game, but last week he played second fiddle to Raheem Mostert. D’Andre Swift’s usage was inspiring for Kenny, who hopes that he continues that in a shootout against Minnesota. #1 Davante Adams gets a Jalen Ramsey game. #10 Amari Cooper gets #10 OPRK Cincy with a rusty Watson throwing it to him. In Watson’s first game Cooper caught 4/9 targets for 40 yards. Both teams need to reconstruct their lineups and keep up in points scored AND have things fall into place perfectly. Will this game determine a playoff team? Or is this game a mirage, a false hope, and one that will simply matter to the Bottom Bowl seeding? We shall find out.

Division 3:

Brad (9-4) vs. Trey (6-7)

Trey’s Cinderella story might be coming to an end this week. He faces the D3 winner and points leader through 13 weeks Brad. Brad is trying to get a bye in the playoffs and Tommy holds the tie breaker having beat Brad in Week 6 83.2 to 133.5, which means Brad needs to win and Tommy needs to lose to make that happen. Trey will not receive mercy from Brad this week and his lineup looks disastrous. Lamar Jackson was injured and is most likely out this week. Johnathan Taylor has a very very ill-timed bye week. So does Christian Watson and even Taysom Hill. Trey will need to replace his Qb and Tight End in waivers and might have to find a Wideout/Flex as well considering Treylon Burks got concussed last week and will have to clear a more strictly enforced protocol. He will have #17 Rb Travis Etienne Jr @ Tennessee and #12 Rb Miles Sanders vs. the Giants in a big NFC matchup. On Brad’s side he’ll have #2 Qb Jalen Hurts in the Giants matchup, #5 Rb Christian McCaffrey against Tampa Bay, #4 Rb Nick Chubb vs. Cincy, #3 WR Justin Jefferson against Detroit, #9 WR Jaylen Waddle vs. LA Chargers, #5 D/ST Buffalo against Mike White and the NY Jets. Trey has pulled off some miracles to stay alive this long, but this fairy tale looks like it’s about to get crushed without mercy.

Scotty (3-10) vs. Moose (7-6)

Moose has dropped 4 straight but has clinched a playoff spot. Scotty isn’t starting his lineup anymore, so Moose should progress to 8-6 on the season. He’ll have #3 Qb Josh Allen vs. the Jets, (he put up 24.8 against them in Week 9), #6 Rb Saquon Barkley against Philly who just shut down Derrick Henry, #11 Rhamondre Stevenson vs. Arizona, #5 WR AJ Brown vs. the NY Giants. Scotty will have #8 Qb Justin Herbert vs. Miami who just gave up a decent outing to Brock Purdy, #13 Rb Joe Mixon might actually be back this week against Cleveland, which is a smash spot for Rb’s. #10 Rb Jamaal Williams is the 2022 James Conner and faces Minnesota. DJ Moore gets Seattle Tyler Boyd against Cleveland, #3 TE TJ Hockenson gets a revenge game against Detroit. And #20 Deebo Samuel gets Tampa Bay. If Scotty doesn’t touch his lineup he actually could win this. He has options on his bench too. Crazy.

Playoff Scenarios:

5 Teams are vying for the final 2 spots. For the purpose of tie breakers I’ll include Moose who is 7-6, but according to ESPN has clinched a playoff spot.

6 Teams at 7-6 or 6-7.

How can they get in?

Moose (7-6)- 100% chance

(In according to ESPN who says he has 100% chance. Will be 4^th, 5^th or 6^th seed. Moose has scored a lot more points than anyone else 1596.7 and is still in running for points leader with Tommy and Brad.)

Win and he’s in the 4 vs. 5 matchup.
Lose against Scotty, Trey wins, Mike loses, Chase loses, then 5-way tie at 7-7 with Moose, Chase, Mike, Trey, and winner of Kenny/Jen. Would go to points for and Moose is in.
Lose against Scotty, Mike wins, Chase wins, Trey wins, then it is 3-way tie at 7-7 with Moose, Trey, and winner of Kenny/Jen. Would go to points for and Moose is in.
Lose against Scotty, Mike wins, Chase wins, Trey loses, then it is 2-way tie at 7-7 with Moose and winner of Kenny/Jen. Moose beat both Kenny and Jen, so head to head he’s in.
Lose against Scotty, Mike wins, Chase loses, Trey loses, then it would be 3 way tie at 7-7 with Moose, Chase, winner of Kenny/Jen. Moose lost to Chase, but beat the other two. Records are Moose 2-1, Chase 3-0, Kenny 0-2, Jen 0-2, so records are out, goes to Points For, Moose is in. In this scenario, it would be 1. JD, 2. Brad, 3. Tommy, 4. Mike, 5. Moose, 6. Chase.

Chase (7-6)- 99% chance

Win against Joe and he’s in.
Lose against Joe, but Brad beats Trey and Mike beats Tommy. (Chase beat both Kenny and Jen)
Lose against Joe, Brad beats Trey, Mike loses to Tommy. (Goes to Points For where Chase, Mike, and winner of Kenny/Jen compare points for. Chase is at 1459.5, Mike at 1355.3, Kenny at 1383.7, Jen at 1285.4. So if Kenny doesn’t win AND score 75.8 more than Chase, then Chase is in)

Mike (7-6)- 87% chance

Win against Tommy and he’s in.
Lose against Tommy, but Brad beats Trey and Chase beats Joe. (Mike beat both Kenny and Jen)
Lose against Tommy, Brad beats Trey, Joe beats Chase. (Goes to Points For where Chase, Mike, and winner of Kenny/Jen compare points for. Chase is at 1459.5, Mike at 1355.3, Kenny at 1383.7, Jen at 1285.4. So if Kenny beats Jen Mike would need to score 28.5 more than Kenny.)

Kenny (6-7) 8% chance

Win against Jen, Mike loses to Tommy AND Chase loses to Joe, Trey loses to Brad. (Goes to Points For where Kenny has to outscore Chase by 75.8 or Mike needs to not outscore Kenny by 28.4.

Jen (6-7) 1% chance

Win against Kenny, Mike loses to Tommy, Chases loses to Joe, and Jen oustcores Mike by 69.9 AND outscores Trey by 70.0( would have 4-5 teams at 7-7 and Points For would be tie breaker, with Moose in, Chase in, and next highest scorer getting 6^th Jen doesn’t need Trey to beat Brad if Mike and Chase both lose, she would just need to score 69.9 more than Mike. If Trey wins she would need to outscore Trey by 70.0.

Trey (6-7) 6% chance

Win against Brad. Moose beats Scotty. Chase loses to Joe. Mike loses to Tommy. This would set up Chase 7-7, Mike 7-7, Trey 7-7, and winner of Jen/Kenny at 7-7. Trey would need to finish higher in Points For than 2 of the remaining 3. He’s even with Mike (Trey-1355.4, Mike-1355.3) and holds a lead on Jen (1285.4), but lost to Jen in regular season. He would need to oustcore Kenny by 28.3 (Kenny is at PF: 1383.7) if Kenny beats Jen. He needs Mike and Chase to both lose, because if one of them wins, then it’ll go to head to head matchup between Mike, Trey, and Jen or Mike, Trey and Kenny for 6^th Mike beat both Kenny and Jen but lost to Trey. Trey beat Mike and Chase, but lost to Kenny and Jen. Jen lost to Mike, but beat Trey. Kenny lost to Mike, but beat Trey.
So let’s say Chase beats Joe, Mike loses to Tommy, Jen beats Kenny, Trey beats Brad, and Moose beats Scotty. It would be 1. JD, 2. Tommy, 3. Brad, 4. Moose, 5. Chase. The 6^th seed would be tie breaker between Mike 7-7, Jen 7-7, and Trey 7-7. All 3 would be 1-1 and it would go to Points For. So who ever finishes the season with most points wins the 6^th I think this is Trey’s ideal scenario.

The Summary:

The 6 teams will most likely be JD, Tommy, Brad, Moose, Chase, and Mike. Mike is the only one that is a sizeable risk to lose his spot (13%). If he does, it would open the door for Trey, Kenny or Jen.

BBY Dream Team League S14 Week 12 Recap & Week 13 Preview

December 1, 2022 bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL Fantasy Football, NFL, Preview, Recap

Sorry for no write up in Week 12. Hilary was battling COVID, the whole family was sick, and I was working solo at work and had to deal with resignations and a termination all while trying to prepare for Thanksgiving. I hope you all had had a great time with family and friends and football this holiday. I’m grateful to be connected with all of you guys still despite us being apart for so many years. We are all feeling better by the way and getting back to normal.

Week 12 Recap:

Division 1:

Mike (7-5) 158.9 vs. Chase (7-5) 114.8

Mike Grote’s team exploded. Critical matchup in D1, fighting and clawing for a playoff spot. And Mike’s team delivered. Mainly due to Josh Jacobs ridiculous 52.3 point explosion. Absolutely killer. A big portion of his points came in OT when he ripped off an 86 yard game winning walk off run for a touchdown. Mike also had solid games from Tee Higgins who had 7 catches for 114 yards and a touchdown (23.9) and Chris Godwin who had 12 catches for 110 yards and a touchdown (26.0) and Dalton Schultz who caught 2 touchdowns for 17.1 fantasy points. Chase didn’t have a bad week per se, but he just couldn’t compete with Josh Jacobs. He got Amon-Ra St. Brown’s big game on Thanksgiving with 9 catches for 122 yards and a touchdown (26.4) and decent days from Carr (20.8), Foreman (14.3), Kelce (13.7), and Hopkins (16.7). Mike gets the critical victory, but Chase remains ahead of him in the standings with more points for.

Joe (4-8) 107.5 vs. Tommy (8-4) 79.8

Tommy faced his easiest opponent in the division and lost! This was Tommy’s gimme game before facing two hungry and upcoming teams fighting for their playoff spots in Mike and Chase to close out the regular season. Joe got to play the role of spoiler and got the upset. Joe didn’t have anyone go off he was just solid. With Geno Smith getting 22.2, Samaje Perine getting 17.3, Adam Thielen 16.6, and SF D/ST getting 15 and Justin Tucker getting 14. On Tommy’s side his team just shit the bed. Burrow got 18, Derrick Henry only got 13.2, Tyreek got 12, DK Metcalf got 14.5 and his peripherals underperformed with a combination of 13.1. Tommy also started inactive Leonard Fournette. Don’t think it would’ve mattered, but Points For can impact standings and playoff seeding, so it’ll be something to watch over the next couple of weeks. I imagine Tommy was either in the Titans booth sipping champagne or out in the woods slaughtering deer instead of setting his lineup, which is understandable. There is more to life than pretend football. 

Division 2:

JD (10-2) 143.9 vs. Kenny (5-7) 79.3

Congratulations to JD who has almost locked in a bye week in the playoffs. The only thing standing in his way is Tommy since JD beat Brad head to head. If Tommy and Brad both go 2-0 and JD loses both games then it might come down to head to head and since they’ve played an equal amount of games against one another, Tommy 2-0 would be 1 seed, JD 1-1 would be 2 seed, and Brad 0-2 would be 3 seed. So unless I’m not calculating something right JD has earned a bye. If he wins one more or Tommy or Brad loses one more then it’s 100%. JD crushes Kenny by 64.6 points. JD had a complete victory this week. Everybody scored between 8.7 to 25.9. 8/9 scored in double digits. He made all the right start/sit decisions. He crushed it and dominated. On Kenny’s side this makes his playoff hopes very very slim. ESPN has him at a 4% chance of making the playoffs. It’s not 0, but it would require a crazy amount of stuff to happen to get him in as the 6^th seed. Kenny had 5/9 starters score in single digits including his kicker getting -1 point. His matchups were good on paper, but not in fantasy reality.

Katon (2-10) 88.8 vs. Jen (6-6) 104.5

Jen is staying alive! Her trio of Running Backs outperformed Katon’s trio of Running Backs. She had James Conner rush for over 100 yards and catch a receiving touchdown for 22.5 points, Kenneth Walker scored two touchdowns for 16.4 points, and Aaron Jones did his thing with a receiving touchdown and 17.4 points. Her Rb’s combined for 56.3. For Katon he had Alvin Kamara fumble it twice for 4 points, David Montgomery got 12.8, and Zeke Elliot did his thing on Thanksgiving with a solid 16. His Rbs combined for 32.8. So Jen’s Rb’s outscored Katon’s Rbs by 23.5. Jen won the game by 15.7. Twas the difference. Jen still has to battle Kenny and JD to close out the regular season looking at the standings she most likely will need to win both games and get some help in order to make it due to her lower points for.

Division 3:

Moose (7-5) 102.5 vs. Brad (8-4) 137.3

Revenge! Brad gets his Week 1 Revenge against Moose. Of course Moose’s team has been wrecked by injuries as of late. But Brad gets the win and clinches a playoff spot. He currently sits in 1^st in Division 3 and #1 in Points Scored. Brad got 32.7 from Jalen hurts who rushed for 157 yards against the Packers. He got 22.7 from Nick Chubb who scored the game winning touchdown in OT to beat the Bucs. And Justin Jefferson did his thing on Thanksgiving catching 9 balls for 139 yards and a touchdown (27.8) points. Brad changed out his tight end at the last minute and made the wrong choice, but overall solid day. On Moose’s side he got his normal 29.8 from Josh Allen. Barkley did ok with 13.2 and Stevenson did his thing with 15.7. His peripherals combined for 28.8, which is decent. Wr 2 Curtis Samuel only got 1.3 and his flex Dameon Pierce only got 3.1. I was sure Moose was going to put in Rashad White after Fournette was ruled out, but he didn’t. I saw Moose posting pictures of the Grand Canyon on Instagram, so again I completely understand that there is more to life than our pretend football hobby. As Ron Swanson says, “Crying is only okay in two places. Funerals and the grand canyon.” Moose still has a high percentage chance of making the playoffs with his high points for. ESPN has him at an 96% chance.

Scotty (3-9) 98.7 vs. Trey (5-7) 137.8

Trey is like the night in Monty Python’s The Holy Grail. “I’m not dead yet!” With his victory over Scotty he now faces the two leaders of the division in Moose (7-5) and then Brad (8-4). Both of which have scored almost 250+ more points for on the season. Trey’s victory over Scotty was due to Miles Sanders rushing for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns against Green Bay (32.5), Christian Watson catching 4 balls for 110 yards and a touchdown against Philly (24.0) and Lamar Jackson doing decent against Jacksonville with 89 yards rushing and 22.9 fantasy points. Trey did lose Travis Etienne Jr. early in the Baltimore game due to a foot injury, but word from Jacksonville is that he could have gone back in but they were being extra cautious. Scotty got 28.6 from Justin Herbert which is awesome. But he also started Joe Mixon who was inactive due to a concussion, which of course was not awesome. Hopefully Scotty gets that lineup set this week and he looks to play spoiler to Brad and Moose.

Week 13 Preview:

Division 1:

Mike (7-5) vs. Joe (4-8)

Joe is eliminated from the playoffs, but he’s out to play spoiler against his division. Mike has been holding on to a thread for weeks and finds himself on the cusp of a playoff berth. Standing in his way is Joe’s #7 Qb Geno Smith against LA Rams who are playing all backups on offense and won’t have Aaron Donald on defense. #8 Rb Tony Pollard against Indy on Sunday Night Football. Joe is hoping to have Ja’Marr Chase back in his lineup against KC. And #2 Tight End Mark Andrews faces Denver. For Mike he has Dak Prescott against Indy in that SNF game. #22 Rb Najee Harris has a great matchup against Atlanta if he plays. Last week he sustained a abdomen injury and is questionable for this week. Mike also has Running Back Number Fucking 1 Josh Jacobs. Brad was wrong in his draft grades. DEAD WRONG. Jacobs is also questionable with a calf injury. They’ll monitor this week, but I’m sure they’ll deploy him against a beatable LA Chargers defense. Mike will also have #11 Wr Tee Higgins in a potential shootout with Kansas City and Chris Godwin against the Saints. Saints Defense has looked better and always plays well against the Bucs. But Godwin has scored in back to back games and looks matchup proof as Brady’s go-to receiver. Should be a great game. Good luck gentleman!

Tommy (8-4) vs. Chase (7-5)

Let’s Gooooooooooo. Tommy can clinch the division with a victory since he would be 2 games up on Chase with only 1 game to go after this week. If Mike wins out he could tie Tommy’s record at 9-5, but Tommy has scored 211.4 more points than Mike and they would have split their record against each other. If Chase wins then things get interesting. Chase and Tommy would both be 8-5 and if Mike wins he too would be 8-5. In that scenario if Mike beats Tommy in Week 14 and Chase loses to Joe then Mike could win the division. If Chase beats Joe he would be 9-5 and meaning if Tommy beats Mike Tommy would be Division 1 winner and if Mike beat Tommy Chase would be division winner. Division 1 is the only division with 3 teams that have a chance to win the division. So exciting! Any who, we can do what if’s all day long, let’s focus on this week. Tommy has Qb 4. Joe Burrow vs. Kansas City in a potential shootout. Chase has rub a dub tug Deshaun “Rape-y fuck twat” Watson in his first NFL game in 700 days against his former team in Houston. The creepy piece of shit who allegedly forced women to give him hand jobs while he was getting massages will need to shake off some rust and I’m sure a shit ton of boo’s as he squares off against Houston’s #5 ranked OPRK. We’ll see if the pile of human garbage can perform and be the answer at Qb, a position that has plagued Chase this season. Tommy also has #2 Rb Derrick Henry against Philly. Teams were running pretty good against Philly which motivated them to sign Suh and Linval Joseph at DT to try and shore that up. Tommy is hoping to have #17 Rb Leonard Fournette back on MNF against the Saints. We’ll see if his hip pointer keeps him out another week and/or if Rashad White continues to be the lead back for the Bucs. Chase has #11 Dalvin Cook against the Jets who have been decent against the Run (#10 OPRK) and Gus “the Bus” Edwards in a tough matchup against Denver. D’Onta Foreman was able to rush for over 100 yards against Denver, so we’ll see if Edwards continues to lead the Baltimore backfield and can replicate that success. Tommy’s #4 Wr Tyreek Hill faces San Francisco. Mike McDaniel returns to his previous employer trying to keep Miami surging in the AFC. #19 Wr DK Metcalf gets the Rams. Last season against the Rams he had one great game (5-98-2) and one stinker game (6-52-0). Of course last season the Rams won the Super Bowl and this season they suck, but Jalen Ramsey should be active. Chase has the two most fun names to say in Fantasy at WR with #12 Amon-Ra St. Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster. The Sun God faces Jacksonville and JuJu is in a potential shootout with a pretty good Cincy defense. This game has huge implications. Enjoy it this Sunday and Monday fellas.

Division 2:

JD (10-2) vs. Jen (6-6)

Two teams with the longest win streaks in the league as JD has won 7 straight and Jen has won 3 straight. JD can clinch the 1 seed and a bye with the victory. Jen can keep her playoff hopes alive with the victory. Both with high stakes. JD will have #1 Qb Patrick Mahomes in a revenge game against Cincinnati. The Bengals eliminated the Chiefs 27-24 in OT of the AFC Championship game last season. JD also has #3 Rb Austin Ekeler against the Raiders. Ekeler underwhelmed in Week 1 with only 9.2 fantasy points against the Raiders, but I don’t believe he’ll be repeating that performance. Jd will also be starting newly acquired Zonovan Knight. An undrafted rookie has hopes of starting for the Jets this week with James Robinson underperforming in practice and Michael Carter hobbled by an ankle injury. JD dropped $31 for Zonovan to start him at Rb2 this week. He also has another Jet in Wr#21 Garret Wilson. With Mike White at Qb Wilson exploded last week. This week he gets a Vikings defense ranked #26 in OPRK against Fantasy Receivers. Jd will also have #8 Wr CeeDee Lamb who will have to navigate a solid Colts secondary led by Stephon Gilmore. For Jen she is turning to Mike White against Minnesota over #11 Qb Daniel Jones against Washington. She’ll be without James Conner this week due to bye, which is unfortunate. She still has #14 Rb Kenneth Walker against Aaron Donald-less Rams defense and #7 Aaron Jones in a smash spot against a completely depleted and overmatched Chicago defense. In Week 2 Jones scored 33.5 against Chicago and that we before they traded away Robert Quinn to the Eagles, Roquan Smith to the Ravens, and lost Safety Eddie Jackson to a season ending Lisfranc injury. Jen will also have #15 Terry McLaurin vs. the Giants and #13 Chris Olave against Tampa. In Week 2 Olave caught 5 of 13 targets for 80 yards. Jd is favored, but this is fantasy football and anything can happen. Will Jd win his 8^th in a row and knock Jen out the playoffs? Or will Jen keep hope alive and win her 4^th straight?

Katon (2-10) vs. Kenny (5-7)

Kenny is technically still alive for the playoffs but he would need a miracle. ESPN gives him a 4% chance, which is the smallest odds of the remaining 9 teams in contention. He does get Katon, which has been the leagues proverbial doormat this season. Katon will have struggling Rb #18 Alvin Kamara against Tampa Bay on MNF, #1 Wr Stefon Diggs @ New England on TNF, #10 WR Christian Kirk in a smash spot against Detroit and Zeke against Indy on SNF. Kenny will have #12 Qb Tua Tagovailoa against San Fran, #21 Rb Jeff Wilson against his former team, and #24 Rb Devin Singletary @ New England on TNF. #3 Davante Adams gets LA Chargers. #7 Amari Cooper gets Houston with a new Qb at the helm in Deshaun “Seriously you are a pro athlete and you couldn’t get girls to please you sexually for free?” Watson. We’ll see if Cooper and Watson have good chemistry from practice or if Watson is rusty after the long hiatus. Best of luck Kenny. We’ll see if he’ll be banished to the bottom bowl or if his slim hopes will stay alive this week.

Division 3:

Moose (7-5) vs. Trey (5-7)

Trey is hanging on by a thread. Moose has his eyes set on a Division Crown. Only one can win. Moose will get the party started on Thursday Night Football with both #2 Qb Josh Allen and #12 Rb Rhamondre Stevenson. Then on Sunday Moose will deploy #5 Rb Saquon Barkley against Washington, #16 Rb Dameon Pierce against Cleveland, and WR #9 AJ Brown in a revenge game against his former team the Tennessee Titans. The Titans traded away AJ Brown and drafted Treylon Burks. You know Brown will be motivated to assert his dominance over the young Titans secondary. I don’t know if Trey can survive what’s about to happen to the Titans. Unless… the Eagles use Brown as decoy given the headlines and feed Trey’s Rb #13 Miles Sanders. Titans have been a pass funnel mainly due to the fact that they are so good stopping the run. Something to watch, but I would not want to be a member of the Titans secondary this week. Trey will also have rookie Christian Watson against the ghost of defenses past Chicago. Watson has scored touchdowns in each of his last 3 games. 6 to be exact. And caught one from Jordan Love last week, which is a good sign if Aaron Rodgers isn’t able to go due to being so beat up right now. Trey will #20 Rb Jonathan Taylor on SNF against a good Dallas defense and then on Monday Night Football Moose will have #8 Kicker Ryan Succop and Trey will have #4 TE Taysom Hill. Would be crazy if this game came down to a peripheral bowl on Monday Night. A couple of relevant storylines to watch this week will be whether Travis Etienne plays for Trey and/or if Christian McCaffrey plays for San Fran. Trey picked up Tyrion Davis-Price as a hail mary in the event CMC sits and the 49ers decide to make him lead back this week. Brad went with a different strategy which we’ll talk more about in the next matchup.

Scotty (3-9) vs. Brad (8-4)

I have my eyes on the prize. A year after finishing 3-11 and finishing the regular season in dead last, Brad once again finds himself in the playoffs. Even more he has a chance to win his division AND is currently #1 in Points Scored, which has a $200 bill awaiting the winner. He can’t get ahead of himself though. In his way sits Scotty. Scotty will have #9 Justin Herbert in a shootout with the Raiders, #10 Rb Joe Mixon looks to clear concussion protocol and play in a big time shootout against Kansas City, TD Magent #9 Jamaal Williams faces Jacksonville, #25 WR Tyler Boyd is in the Cincy-KC game, #20 Wr Deebo Samuel gets Miami and #3 Tight End TJ Hockenson gets the Jets. The big story for Brad is Christian McCaffrey. He has a knee ailment that will limit his practice this week. They are hopeful he plays against Miami. Brad picked up Jordan Mason just in case, but it’s no lock that Mason would start if McCaffrey is inactive. They could go with bigger back Tyrion Davis-Price or even bring Tevin Coleman up from the practice squad and have him handle the bulk of carries. Brad also has Jaylen Warren who could be in line for a high workload against a beatable Atlanta defense if Najee Harris is inactive and he has Jamycal Hasty who could be in line for a high workload against a beatable Detroit defense if Travis Etienne is inactive. Brad has options. #4 Nick Chubb faces Houston’s #32 OPRK defense. #2 Justin Jefferson will square off against the Sauce and #6 Jaylen Waddle will be in that interesting 49ers game. Brad also has Isaih Pacheco who has taken over as KC’s lead running back and Jerick McKinnon the third down back is banged up, albeit they have a tough matchup against the Bengals. Brad is heavily favored in this one, but he still has a lot of options and storylines to pay attention to and manage as the week progresses. He’s hoping he’ll have good games out of his #4 Bills D/ST and #2 Kicker Tyler Bass who both play on TNF.

Playoff Implications Everywhere. Cold Weather. Injuries. Hope. Ambition. Fantasy Football.

Thanks for reading,

The Commish.

BBY Dream Team League Season 14: Week 10 Recap & Week 11 Preview

November 16, 2022 bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL Fantasy Football, NFL, Preview, Recap

Week 10 Recap:

JD (8-2) 137.6 vs. Brad (7-3) 130.6

Bit Time game with playoff seeding implications. Brad was down by 28.8 heading into Monday Night Football with Jalen Hurts left to play. IBM Watson gave Brad a 28% chance of Jalen Hurts scoring over 30 fantasy points. Earlier in the year in Week 3 Jalen scored 30.6 points, so Brad just needed a repeat. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards as Jalen went for 21.8 points as the Eagles lost to the Commanders. Brad had solid producers led by Justin Jefferson’s 33.3 points on 10 catches for 193 yards and a touchdown against a good Bills team. Only disappointing spot for Brad was Greg Dulcich who only had 1 catch for 11 yards in Denver’s loss to Tennessee. For JD he had two of his players go off for him in Patrick Mahomes who threw for over 300 yards and 4 touchdowns against the Jaguars for 34.1 fantasy points and CeeDee Lamb who caught 11 balls for 150 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns in a losing effort against the Green Bay Packers (35.5). He got solid production from Mostert (16.7) Rodale Moore (13.9) and Ten D/ST (13). All this despite an underwhelming game by Austin Ekeler, who scored his lowest amount (9.8) since Week 3. With this win JD has clinched a playoff spot. Congratulations JD!

Joe (3-7) 69.8 vs. Kenny (4-6) 132.8

K-Dub crushes Joe by a whopping 63 points, almost doubling him up this week. Joe got solid production out of Geno Smith (19.2) and Tony Pollard (23.3) but he had a season record 3 players score exactly 0 points. Eno Benjamin, Jerry Jeudy, and Clyde Edwards Helaire. Kenny started Jeff Wilson Jr who went off against Cleveland for 24.3 fantasy points and Cole Kmet against Detroit who scored a pair of touchdowns for 23.4. Adams was Adams with 26.1 and Devin Singletary ran for 2 touchdowns. Complete effort from Kenny as he stays in the playoff hunt.

Jen (4-6) 115.3 vs. Tommy (7-3) 108.3

Jen with the upset! Yall may remember Jen and Brad had a trade a few weeks ago. After JJ went off for 33.3 points this week one might have been thinking that Jen lost that trade. As the Legendary Lee Corso likes to say, “Not so fast!” She got 18.2 from Daniel Jones, 25.6 from Aaron Jones, and 18.3 from Gabe Davis, a total of 62.1 points. Heading into MNF she was at 95.5 points to Tommy’s 108.3. Terry McLaurin remained. Scary Terry wind up getting 8 catches for 128 yards and he looked good doing it. 19.8 and the victory by 7 points. On Tommy’s side he turned to Justin Fields with Joe Burrow on bye and Fields delivered yet again. 44.3 fantasy points! Everyone else on Tommy’s team had a quiet game. Tyreek had 12.9, Henry had 7.7. Just couldn’t get it going this week. Jen is still in the playoff hunt!

Chase (6-4) 135.6 vs. Scotty (3-7) 60.3

Chase more than doubles up Scotty. Scotty had every single player score 12 or less, including 7/9 in single digits. His team scored a total of 2 touchdowns, 1 from Herbert and 1 from Jamaal Williams. Chase started Subway Spokesperson and Terrible Quarterback Russel Wilson @ Tennesee, but the story for Chase was his rbs Dalvin Cook (27.1) and D’Onta Foreman (22) combining for 49.1. Kelce, Hopkins, and Amon-Ra St. Brown did their thing. The only unfortunate thing for Chase was JuJu Smith-Schuster got hurt and was put in the concussion protocol and had to exit the game.

Mike (5-5) 95.3 vs. Trey (4-6) 98.9

Mike held a slim lead of 1.8 fantasy points heading into MNF while Trey had Miles Sanders left. Sanders sucked, but he got Trey 5.4 points which was enough for the victory. Trey wins his third in a row. He was carried by the 1^st overall pick Jonathan Taylor. It’s amazing. The Colts and JT suck. They fire their coach, turn to the veteran Qb, and give JT the ball and magically they win a game. JT’s schedule looks great to end the year, so don’t count Trey out of this thing yet. If he can squeeze into a post season berth he can compete. Mike couldn’t get it going this week. Jacobs got a respectable 19.6 points and Chris Godwin got his first touchdown of the season. But 5 players scoring in single digits and Mike starting the wrong tight end was the difference in the game.

Katon (2-8) 108.3 vs. Mustafa (7-3) 84.5

PIGS CAN FLY! HELL HAS FROZEN OVER! Katon takes down Mustafa! Worse than the loss for Moose was the two injuries he sustained. Cooper Kupp is heading to IR after suffering a high ankle sprain. He exited with 1.4 fantasy points. Tight End Dallas Goedert was also injured. Moose had Josh Allen play gutsy and score 22.6 and Saquon Barkley did his thing against Houston with 25.5, but the rest of his team combined for a paltry 36.4 points. How did Katon do it? Stefon Diggs had 12 catches for 128 yards and 21.8 fantasy points and Christian Kirk went for his best game of the season with 9 catches, 105 yards, and 2 touchdowns (30 fantasy points). Those two combined for 51.8 points. Katon got a touchdown from Devonta Smith on MNF and was able to get the job done.

Week 11 Preview

Last Week of Non-Divisional Games! Playoff Implications Everywhere!

Chase (6-4) vs. Brad (7-3)

Both teams have a very strong chance to make the playoffs. ESPN has Chase at 90% chance of making the playoffs and Brad at 99% chance of making the playoffs. That % chance will go down for one of these teams this week. Chase has renamed his team “Land of Misfti Quaterbacks” which is appropriate. Chase has started 4 different quarterbacks this season and has averaged 12.54 points per game at the position. Compare that to Brad who has started only 2 quarterbacks, his starter #3 Jalen Hurts and #15 Daniel Jones who only started due to Hurts’ bye week. Brad has averaged 25.31 from the Qb position. This week Chase turns to Qb #22 Russell Wilson. Who has looked awful. His only really strong performance came in Week 4 when he faced this same Raiders team he faces now. He scored 26.9 fantasy points in that matchup, throwing for 2 touchdowns and rushing for 1 touchdown. He hasn’t scored more than 14.2 since Week 4. The Raiders suck, so let’s see if Wilson repeats or if the loss of Jerry Jeudy hurts his value. Brad’s Hurts matches up against Indianapolis. Indy has been pretty solid in stopping opposing Qbs. At Rb teams look to be pretty even with Chase having #9 Rb Dalvin Cook against Dallas and D’Onta Foreman at home against Baltimore. Foreman has rushed for over 100 yards in 3 out of the 4 weeks since the CMC trade. We’ll see if he can continue that success this week or if his stats are inflated from playing Atlanta twice. Brad has #6 Rb Christian McCaffrey against Arizona. CMC played Arizona earlier this season for the Panthers and had 9 catches on 9 targets for 81 yards and a receiving touchdown. Look for CMC to get his normal amount of usage and touches despite Elijah Mitchell getting more snaps in his return last week. #1 Rb Nick Chubb faces Buffalo. Buffalo is giving up an average of 30.8 fantasy points per game to opposing running backs the last 3 weeks. Also this game is projected to be a heavy snow game, meaning lots of runs and weird punts. Chase has the advantage at WR due to Brad being without #6 WR Jaylen Waddle due to bye weeks. He’ll rely on #3 Justin Jefferson against Dallas and Courtland Sutton against Las Vegas. Brad hoping for more targets to Sutton and Dulcich with Jeudy being injured. Chase has the Sun-God Amon-Ra St. Brown against the Giants. His usage is insane. He also has DeAndre Hopkins versus San Fran on MNF. Hopkins has been a target and reception monster since coming back from suspension and now looks to pick up more potential targets with the injury to Zach Ertz. Chase also has Philly D against Indy which is going to be a smash and Dicker the Kicker. Should be a great matchup.

Mike (5-5) vs. Katon (2-8)

Katon has all but been eliminated from playoff contention, but Mike is still fighting for a spot. ESPN has Mike with a 52% chance of making a playoff spot. Standing in Mike’s way is a Katon team with some favorable matchups this week. Katon has #18 Alvin Kamara against LA Rams, David Montgomery in a smash spot against Atlanta. With Khalil Herbert out of the way look for Montgomery’s usage to spike. Katon also has #2 WR Stefon Diggs in a smash spot against Cleveland. Depending on weather conditions. WR Devonta Smith should be busy against Indianapolis and don’t overlook Brian Robinson Jr against Houston. Houston is #32 OPRK against Fantasy Rbs and have given up an average of 198 rushing yards in the past 3 weeks. For Mike he’s hoping for an NFC shootout between Dallas and Minnesota to fuel Dak Prescott. Dak has looked pretty good since his return from injury. Mike also has TE Dalton Schultz in that game for the Dak-Dalton stack. Najee Harris had his most carries and rushing yards of the season last week against the terrible Saints. Let’s see how he does against a Cincy defense he scored 9.6 against in Week 1 due in large part to a receiving touchdown. #5 Rb Josh Jacobs faces Denver. In Week 4 of this year Jacobs rushed 28 times for 144 yards and 2 rushing touchdowns. Mike would love a repeat of that performance. Tee Higgins was quiet in Week 1 against Pittsburgh but with Ja’Marr Chase out his target share should remain higher. Not sure who Mike will wind up starting at Wr2 and Flex with Chris Godwin out on bye. Katon will need to pick up a TE with Evan Engram on bye.

JD (8-2) vs. Mustafa (7-3)

One week after JD defeats Brad from Division 3, he gets Moose from Division 3. Of course the big story heading into this week is Moose losing WR #4 Cooper Kupp and TE # 4 Dallas Goedert to injuries last week. These two were averaging 30.3 points per game combined and will be big shoes to fill on Moose’s roster. I would say look for Moose to make a trade since he is deep at RB, but we have passed the trade deadline. Dizzle also lost Khalil Herbert to IR due to a hip injury. This leaves him a little shorthanded considering Raheem Mostert is currently on a bye week. JD does have A lot of players playing in primetime games this week. #1 Qb Patrick Mahomes, #3 Rb Austin Ekeler, and either Keenan Allen or Joshua Palmer all face off on SNF when the Chiefs battle the Chargers in Los Angeles. JD also has #11 D/ST Tennessee against Green Bay on TNF. Looks like JD will need to find a Tight End and it looks like he’ll roll with James Robinson @ New England. On Moose’s side he has #2 Qb Josh Allen in a blizzard game against Cleveland. Luckily for Moose Allen is a really good runner, which will maintain a solid floor despite the potential elements. #4 Rb Saquon Barkley faces Detroit. Detroit has been better against the run in recent weeks if you don’t count Justin Fields running all over them last week. Montgomery and Herbert were pretty quiet last week. Barkley should be solid, but maybe he won’t explode like it looks like he could on paper. #14 Rb Dameon Pierce faces a tough Washington team coming off of an emotional and statement win against the previously undefeated Philly Eagles. Moose has #8 Wr AJ Brown against the Colts. He may get matched up with Stephon Gilmore. He also appeared to look off on Monday Night Football. He came up limping one play. The announcers said he just changed his cleats out, but he never was a factor against Washington. Something to monitor this week in practice. Moose will also have #12 Rb Rhamondre Stevenson against New York Jets. A couple weeks ago he scored 17.8 against this Jets defense, including 7 catches on 7 targets for 72 receiving yards. Moose will have Toney on SNF and Foster Moreau @ Denver. Moreau is serviceable at TE due to target share, but the Raiders suck, limiting his upside. With JD’s depth issues this might be a Moose week as the leaders of D2 and D3 square off!

Joe (3-7) vs. Jen (4-6)

There is no easy way to put this. Joe’s team is dead. Between injuries (Jerry Jeudy looks to miss time, Ja’Marr Chase isn’t back yet), bye weeks (Geno Smith and Noah Fant on byes), and his RB getting released (Eno Benjamin was released and signed with the Texans). He should get Mark Andrews back this week. So that’s something. Jen has her full team minus rookie phenom Kenneth Walker who is on bye this week. She is heavily favored with Qb #15 Daniel Jones playing Detroit who just got torched on the ground by Justin Fields, #8 Rb Aaron Jones plays Tennessee, and #12 WR Terry McLaurin faces Houston.

Tommy (7-3) vs. Trey (4-6)

Both teams have gotten hit hard with bye weeks this week. Tommy will be without #11 Rb Leonard Fournette, #1 WR Tyreek Hill, and #17 DK Metcalf. Trey will be without #10 RB Travis Etienne and #11 WR Tyler Lockett. In addition to both missing folks on bye weeks they both have Quarterbacks that have 2 games over 40+ fantasy points each. Tommy’s #4 Qb Justin Fields who has a juicy matchup against Atlanta and Trey’s #6 Qb Lamar Jackson with a juicy matchup against Carolina. Of course Fields is supposed to be backing up #5 Qb Joe Burrow for Tommy who now finds himself in a bit of a QB quandary. I don’t see how you can bench Fields right now. Both Tommy’s #1 Rb Derrick Henry against Green Bay on TNF and Trey’s #24 Jonathan Taylor against Philly have decent matchups. You can run on Philly as shown by Dameon Pierce and Brian Robinson the last couple of weeks. Tommy was given a lot of shit for drafting Dereck Henry over Cooper Kupp in the draft and now he’s putting the haters back in the refrigerator with the rest of the hate-o-rade. Tommy 1- Brad 0. This should be a huge game with playoff implications. Can Trey stay in the hunt? Can Tommy get a step closer to clinching Division 1 with Chase hot on the…Chase?

Kenny (4-6) vs. Scotty (3-7)

Kenny is alive! He’s hoping to stay in the playoff hunt this week. ESPN has K-Dub having a 16% chance of making the playoffs. Scotty is down to just 3% chance. The Theme of Kenny’s team is injuries. Kyler Murray was injured last week, so we’ll have to see if he is back in action this week on MNF against a tough San Fran defense. D’Andre Swift is back, but limited. He has a total of 22 touches the last 3 weeks combined, which is not good. A pair of touchdowns is the only thing keeping him borderline startable right now. Kenny will have Singletary in the snow game. #5 WR Davante Adams against Denver. In Week 4 he caught 9 balls on 13 targets for 101 yards. #13 Amari Cooper is in the snow game. We’ll see if Kenny gets Mike Williams back from injury or if he needs to turn to Elijah Mitchell, Damien Harris, or Jacobi Meyers. Also Cole Kmet got rolled up at the end of the game last week, so JD will have to monitor that as well. On Scotty’s side he gets Rb#7 Joe Mixon back from bye, but now WR #14 Mike Evans is out on bye. Herbert gets KC on SNF. Jamaal Williams is @ NYG like Kenny’s Swift. DJ Moore and Hockensen should remain high in terms of target share and fantasy potential. Deebo should be a factor on MNF. This could be a very close game. Will Katon play spoiler to the fringe playoff teams? Or will Scotty pull out a victory and hold on to a sliver of a chance? We shall see!

Thanks and Good Luck!

Signed,

The Commish

BBY Dream Team League S14: Week 8 Recap & Week 9 Preview

November 3, 2022 bradleybertoniere Fantasy Football, NFL Fantasy Football, NFL, Preview, Recap

Week 8 Recap:

Brad (6-2) 172.6 vs. Joe (3-5) 104.2

Brad explodes for 172.6 points for his second highest point total of the season. Jalen Hurts threw for 4 touchdowns and 28.4 fantasy points, Christian McCaffrey scored a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown flexing his potential as a 49er to the tune of 36.1 fantasy points. Jalen Waddle scored 2 touchdowns with 29.6 points. Nick Chubb scored 2 touchdowns with 27.9 points. Between those 4 players Brad scored 122 points enough to defeat Joe’s entire team by 17.8 points. Joe did have a lone bright spot on his team in Tony Pollard. Pollard rushed for 131 yards and 3 rushing touchdowns against Chicago with Zeke Elliot ruled out due to a knee injury. Geno Smith was serviceable with 19.0 points and Jerry Jeudy did his thing in London with 6 catches for 63 yards and a touchdown (15.3 points). Brad just went off, nothing to do about that.

Kenny (3-5) 103.0 vs. Chase (5-3) 150.4

K-Dub got rocked by Chase who was led by D’onta Foreman’s 34.8 fantasy points. With Chuba Hubbard inactive due to an ankle injury Foreman was free to run wild against the Falcons. Hopkins looked scary good with 30.9 fantasy points and Dalvin Cook had another nice game with 25.6. Kenny couldn’t hand despite getting 32.1 from Tua and 22.6 from Amari Cooper. His peripherals combined for 10.5 points and Adams was shut down by the Saints. The Raiders were so bad I wondered if the Saints staff replaced their Gatorade with Hurricanes out there. Yikes.

JD (6-2) 103.3 vs. Mike (4-4) 93.8

Dizzle gets the W. He was led by Kirk Cousins’ 3 touchdowns, CeeDee Lambs 16.3 and Khalil Herbert’s 15.9 ( I was right about him). Mike put up a fight with 25.4 from Dak Prescott, but his next top scorer was D/ST with 13. Josh Jacobs got caught up in that disaster of a game against the Saints and only put up 6.4 fantasy points despite averaging 34.6 fantasy points per game in the 3 weeks prior. Ouch.

Tommy (7-1) 152.5 vs. Scotty (2-6) 134.2

Shootout! Tommy gets the W after a monster game from Derrick Henry (40.3) and Tyreek Hill (28.5). Scotty hung in there with the miraculous catch at the end of the game for DJ Moore (29.5) on a beautifully thrown ball by PJ Walker. Scotty’s Lions Goff and Williams both got 21.1 points. And Mike Evans added 18.3 due to his 100 yard receiving day. In the end it wasn’t enough as every started for Tommy scored a touchdown except for Tyreek and his kicker. Fournette, Metcalf, Kittle, Auyik, and even Dallas D/ST all got a touchdown this week. Too much for Scotty.

Trey (2-6) 107.8 vs. Katon (1-7) 106.6

In the Battle of the Bad Trey harrowingly escapes the Katon trap. He was eld by Travis Etienne Jr. who set a career high in rushing yards with 156 against a decent Denver defense. He has back to back 100 yard rushing games after the James Robinson trade and is clawing his way back to prove he wasn’t a draft day bust. Trey also got 21.7 from Lamar Jackson and 13.8 from Miles Sanders. 35.9% of Katons’ points came from Alvin Kamara. Kamara scored 3 touchdowns against the Raiders in a blowout win. He also got a solid 22.8 from Stegon Diggs. Unfortunately 6/9 starters scored in single digits and he loses by 1.2 or Derek Carr’s interception.

Jen (3-5) 111.0 vs. Mustafa (6-2) 146.5

Jen had a new look team, but Moose’s looked just like it did before bye weeks. He picked up right where he left off scoring 146.5 points on his way to a dominant win. Jen was disappointed her newly acquired Qb only put up 9 fantasy points, but she should be pleased that Aaron Jones put up 20.7 fantasy points in a tough matchup against Buffalo. She got a solid 16.6 from Terry McLaurin and 16 from Tyler Allgeier. Moose had AJ Brown go off for 6 receptions, 156 yards, and 3 touchdowns (39.6). According to James Palmer from the NFL Network Lane Johnson was asked how they were able to keep their foot on the gas coming out of the bye and his response was “Just throw that Mother F**ker to number 11.” Moose had 7/9 starters score in double digits.

Week 9 Preview:

Tommy (7-1) vs. Mustafa (5-2)

HUGE Game. Tommy is #1 of D1 and Moose is #1 of D3. A 1^st Round Bye in the playoffs could realistically be at stake. Tommy will be without starting tight end George Kittle and flex play #24 Rb Kareem Hunt. Moose will be without #3 Rb Saquon Barkley. Tommy has #2 Qb Joe Burrow vs. Carolina while Moose’s #1 Qb Josh Allen gets the division opponent Jets. Tommy has #2 Rb Derrick Henry vs. KC on SNF and #9 Rb Lenny Fournette vs. LA Rams. Moose has #15 Rb Dameon Pierce vs. Philly and #8 Rb Rhamondre Stevenson vs. Indy. Tommy has #2 WR Tyreek Hill vs. Chicago. Moose has #3 WR Cooper Kupp vs. Tampa Bay. Kupp sprained his ankle at the end of the game last week and will be worth monitoring this week. At the WR2 position these guys have two dogs on their team. Physical Monsters. Tommy with #24 DK Metcalf vs. Arizona. A couple weeks ago DK underwhelmed against the Cardinals with only 2 catches for 34 yards, but he had solid 7 targets. Moose has #7 WR AJ Brown vs. Houston on TNF. Brown won’t be needed much in this game as it has blowout written all over it. Moose should hope for enough value in the first half as there’s a chance he doesn’t play much in the second half. Moose also has TE #7 Dallas Goedert for TNF. Goedert only has 1 touchdown so far this season and he’s due. Tommy will turn to #6 TE Tyler Conklin at Tight End in relief of Kittle. Conklin is coming off of his best game of the season last week where he had 6 catches on 10 targets for 79 yards and 2 touchdowns. I don’t see that happening against the Bills, but his target share and probability of the Jets playing from behind makes him a solid play this week. The flexes of these two teams are pretty gross and not worth mentioning. Will Tommy move to 8-1? Or will Moose supplant Tommy as Team #1?

Brad (6-2) vs. Kenny (3-5)

Brad has been hit by a bye-maggedon setting this up to be a very close matchup. Brad will be without #5 Rb Christian McCaffrey, #1 Rb Nick Chubb, and his starting tight end Greg Dulcich. Kenny will be without WR #8 Amari Cooper. Looking at Brad’s B squad he will have Qb#5 Jalen Hurts vs. Houston on TNF. Michael Carter vs. Buffalo. Isaiah Pacheco vs. Tennessee on SNF. He does have his WR duo in WR #4 Jaylen Waddle vs. Chicago and WR #5 Justin Jefferson vs. Washington. Kenny will be starting Qb #15 Tua in that Chicago game, so look for Kenny to be rooting for a big Tyreek Hill game and a quiet Waddle game. Kenny is hoping to have D’Andre Swift back this week. His coach said they rushed him back a bit too much last week, despite him only having 10 touches. Devin Singletary is @ the Jets. I don’t believe the acquisition of Hines should impact Singletary too much. It would impact Moss (now a Colt) and Cook’s roles more. Kenny needs #9 WR Davante Adams to play to his potential, he’ll have a chance versus Jacksonville’s defense. Kenny has MVS in his flex spot. Prior to the Chiefs bye MVS had his best game as a Chief with 3 catches, 111 yards and 15.6 fantasy points. Should be a great game!

Joe (3-5) vs. JD (6-2)

Rivalry game! Despite this large gap in wins and losses against these two teams JD has only scored 20.7 more points than Joe on the season. Joe has had 73.7 more points scored against. Both teams have been impacted by byes this week. Joe won’t have #11 Rb Tony Pollard or #25 WR Jerry Jeudy or #5 D/ST San Fran. JD won’t have #13 Wr CeeDee Lamb or Diontae Johnson or #3 Kicker Graham Gano. With JD in the thick of a playoff hunt and points for mattering this game won’t be a kicker bowl. Let’s see who they do have. Joe has #7 Qb Geno Smith facing the Cardinals again. He underwhelmed in their first meeting this season with only 197 yards passing and no touchdowns for 12.6 fantasy points. Most of those came from his 48 yards rushing. JD has Qb #4 Patrick Mahomes vs. Tennessee. Tennessee was struggling against the pass to start the season giving up 2+ passing touchdowns in every game Weeks 1-5. But after the bye week they’ve only given up a total of 2 passing touchdowns in the two games. Has their defense improved that much? Or is it because they faced Indy and Houston? We’ll find out this weekend. Joe has Rb#22 CEH in that SNF game. Clyde has been efficient with scoring fantasy points, but his issue is volume given Chiefs RBBC. The real situation this week is #4 Austin Ekeler going up against the Falcons. D’Onta Foreman just ran all over them to the tune of 118 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns. With the injuries at WR I can see Ekeler’s workload being higher than normal, making this a very favorable situation to JD in this matchup. JD also has #23 Rb Raheem Mostert versus the Bears who were just torched by Tony Pollard last week for 3 touchdowns. The rest of the starting lineups are a hodge podge of nasty. Joe is starting wideouts that were relevant 3 years ago in Adam Thielen and Robert Woods. JD is at least going younger with Drake London and Rondale Moore. In the Flex Joe is turning to some guy named Caleb Huntley. Maybe. Patterson might be activated this week. Meanwhile JD really hopes to have Keenan Allen, but I don’t think they put him in there against the Falcons.

Jen (3-5) vs. Mike (4-4)

There are 5 teams with winning records that are charging ahead towards playoff berths. Then there is the 7 remaining. Right now Mike leads the 7 with a 4-4 record. In comes Jen just 1 game back, but having scored 18.4 more points this season. Jen will have #9 Qb Daniel Jones out on bye Mike will be without Dak Prescott, Dalton Schultz, and Najee Harris. Harris being out might actually help Mike’s chances this week. Jen will have rookie phenom RB #21 Ken Walker III vs. Arizona. A couple weeks ago Walker ran 21 times for 97 yards and a touchdown against the Cardinals for 18 fantasy points. Look for him to continue this success. She’ll also deploy #7 Rb Aaron Jones vs. Detroit. Mike will have #6 Rb Josh Jacobs who like the rest of the Raiders are hoping for a bounce back game after getting blanked by the Saints last week. Even Mike’s wonderful kicker Daniel Carlson got 0 last week. Mike will have to lean on Wr #20 Tee Higgins and Target Vaccum Chris Godwin against the Rams. A few years ago I sat Chris Godwin because he was questionable against the Rams and then he went off for 12 receptions on 14 targets 172 yards and 2 touchdowns. So now I always start Godwin when he plays the Rams. I don’t expect that type of production since the Bucs have looked like garbage lately, but Godwin has 36 targets the last 3 weeks. Jen will have #19 WR Terry McLaurin against the Vikings and it looks like she will go for the stack with Taylor Heinicke to replace Danny Dimes. Should be a really good matchup between these two.

Trey (2-6) vs. Chase (5-3)

Another game that looks closer in the details than when you look at record. A lot of primetime game players in this matchup. Trey has #18 Rb Miles Sanders against Houston TNF. Eagles are heavily favored, but they might be so favored that Boston Scott gets a bunch of work in garbage time. Let’s see if Sanders can get his in the first half. On Sunday Night Football Chase takes over with #1 Tight End Travis Kelce and JuJu Smith-Schuster. JuJu owners couldn’t have been excited about the Chiefs adding Kadarious Toney, who appears to be suddenly healthy all of a sudden. I wonder if Toney was getting bad advice from known cancer Kenny Golladay over there in New York. Anywho. Trey will have the last laugh this week with #3 Qb Lamar Jackson and #3 Tight End Taysom Hill. I have no idea what to expect from Ravens vs. Saints this week, but should be fun to watch. Who Dat! Trey will be praying for JT’s ankle to allow him to play this week. New England has been solid against the run, but a couple teams were able to run on them pretty well. (GB and Chicago). #17 Rb Travis Etienne Jr gets a Las Vegas team that just got destroyed by Alvin Kamara. Smash spot for Etienne who is slowly making up for his draft position which started the season out as a bust. On the other side Chase has #12 Rb Dalvin Cook who has looked a lot better. In Weeks 1-4 he averaged 10.3 fantasy points per game. In his past 3 games he’s averaged 22.5 fantasy points per game. He faces an average Washington defense this week. Chase also has D’Onta Foreman. Since CMC was traded Foreman has rushed for 118 yards in both games. But last week he added 3 rushing touchdowns. We’ll have to see if Chuba Hubbard plays this week as that could eat into Foreman’s touchdown potential, but if Hubbard is inactive then Foreman could be in for another huge game. The Bengals just gave up a 100 yard game to Nick Chubb last week. At Wideout Trey has Allen Lazard against Detroit and #12 Wr Tyler Lockett vs. the Cardinals. He stunk it up last time they played. Chase has the Sun God Lion King Amon-Ra St. Brown against Green Bay. Where do Hockensen’s targets go? He’ll also have DeAndre Hopkins who is averaging 24.6 points per game in his two games back from suspension. For perspective, #1 Wr Stefon Diggs averages 23.3 per game and #3 Wr Cooper Kupp averages 22 per game. Best of luck gentlemen.

Scotty (2-6) vs. Katon (1-7)

I seriously doubt either of these two read this weekly write up. Couple things to mention. Scotty has Herbert vs. Atlanta, Mixon vs. Carolina and newly traded TJ Hockenson against Washington. DJ Moore has been on fire since the trades of Robbie Anderson and CMC. He has 21 targets in the last two weeks. Last game he caught a beautiful hail mary at the end of the game for a 60+ yard touchdown. PJ Walker slung it and it was awesome. On Katon’s side Alvin Kamara is looking great. He has serviceable starters with Diggs, Kirk, and Smith. Even Evan Engram has been looking good for the Jaguars. Despite Katon’s record, he isn’t giving wins away this year. People have to outscore him and earn it.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

-The Commish