Livin on a prayer

Livin on a prayer

We’ve made it halfway through the year with every team securing at least a pair of wins. 3-4 gets you into the playoffs with a 74 point spread across the last playoff team and last place in the league. Everyone’s very much still alive in a week coming up without byes and 3 matchups between bottom 7 teams (3-4 or worse).

In NFL news, trades have been heating up. Amari Cooper goes to the Bills for a bag of chips, and D-Hop was traded to the Chiefs for last week’s NYT crossword. Cooper Kupp is the center of recent trade talks as well as a spicy rumor for a Matt Stafford - Sam Darnold swap. Interestingly, that pair faces off Thursday night with Darnold likely walking away with the losing team.

This week saw countless big fantasy games as all teams except two boasted at least one 20+ point game. Injuries of the week also might become a segment at this point. Chris Godwin suffered a likely season ending injury in garbage time on Monday while teammate Mike Evans tore his hamstring straight off the bone. Brandon Aiyuk put his new contract to good use after tearing his ACL as Deebo was taken to the hospital for pneumonia. In brighter injury news, we are finally free of Deshaun Watson. I was in Columbus, Ohio watching the Browns Bengals game on Sunday and saw him tear his achilles. I heard cheering from the mixed crowd and assumed it was from the Bengals fans until I heard them shout, “Now we actually have a chance!”. The Browns offense this year has been historically bad, still yet to crack 20 points in a single game. Thats pretty reminiscent of the Kenny Pickett years in Pittsburgh but Pickett aint cost $240+ million. I heard someone mention this could be the last time Watson plays for the Browns. The salary cap isn’t real, but I still have a hard time seeing on paper how the Browns avoid a $60+ million cap hit next year. Did teams not believe Joe Flacco still had it this offseason? It seems like not trying to sign him may have cost the Browns and the Dolphins their season.

Matchups

120 in My Lambo (150.56) edged past Team Jeff (132.28). Team Jeff had a strong showing at running back with 5 total touchdowns across Bijan (23.3), KW3 (23.3), and Chubba (11.2). 120 imL tried to answer back with Joe Mixon’s monster day (26.4), but both Jordan Mason (8.9) and Daniel Jones (5.96) failed to find the endzone. Tee Higgins (18.2) on Team Jeff outscored 120 imL’s Ja’Marr Chase (17.6), something that I estimate happens at least 15% of the time in games they play together (2nd time this year). The story of this matchup was the trade multiple weeks ago with Chubba and Terry for AJ Brown and Brock Bowers. Coincidentally, Shultz was dropped from 120 imL’s squad after acquiring Bowers and picked up by Team Jeff. Terry (15.8) saw a lot of volume from backup Marcus Mariota (more on that later), and Chubba appears to be a true workhorse on a putrid offense. Brock Bowers however was the gamble. Historically, rookie tight ends do not produce for fantasy, and Sam LaPorta was the TE1 as a rookie last year. Surely that can’t happen again. Well Bowers is the first, second, and last read in the Raiders offense especially after the departure of Adams. After scoring 19.3 points Sunday, Bowers is on pace for 114 catches (4th in the NFL last year). Things were still tight heading into Monday night as 120 imL had Kyler and a slight lead against Mike Evans. Evans opened up with and early TD making me nervous, especially with a second dime to Evans in the endzone shortly after. However Evans hurt his hamstring so bad he couldn’t pull in the second TD and left the game icing this matchup for 120 imL.

Pain Train (123.04) found their second win of the year against The Lesser Cody (112.08). TLC was off to a fiery start Thursday night as Javonte Williams (26.1) scored a pair of TDs in the route of the Saints. Kyren (19.6) contributed their own pair of TDs on Sunday, and Khalil Shakir (13.5) hauled in all 7 of their targets. What really hurt TLC in this game was Jayden Daniels (5.24) leaving the game with a rib injury very early against the Panthers. Fortunately, he ripped off a 50 yard run before leaving, but it wasn’t enough against Pain Train. Pain Train was looking in rough shape Thursday as Cortland Sutton full goosed in a run first game script, and also had Deebo miss most of the game with an illness. The squad was hard carried however by DK Metcalf (19.9), Aaron Jones (20.6), and Josh Jacobs (20.2). Heading into Monday night, it was Zay Flowers and a 20 point lead for TLC against Pain Train’s Lamar Jackson. Lamar is having himself and NFL MVP year and certainly a fantasy MVP year. Despite Derrick Henry running for >150 yards, all the TDs went to Lamar. TLC’s hopes were at least dashed early as Zay hurt his ankle in the 2nd quarter and saw only one more target after that. Lamar’s 5 TD passes tied a career high and put him at +225 for MVP (Mahomes 2nd with +475). Lamar may have just saved Pain Train’s season.

Team Tendonitis (115.42) walked past Hamas Rockets (72.5). The Rockets are pretty close to phoning this one in. The QB duo of Josh Allen (21.02) and Geno Smith (17.78) were solid as they’ve been most of the year, but not trusting Davante Adams in his first game back led to DeMario Douglas (3.4) getting the start. Furthermore, the Rockets must have set their lineup early in the week when Cooper Kupp was optimistic to play but ultimately sat out. Not like it made a difference, however, as DeVonta Smith (0.8) finished the game with negative receiving yards and starting RBs Mostert and Ekeler combined for <75 yards and 7 fantasy points. Team Tendonitis continues to struggle with injuries, last week losing Rashid Shaheed and entering the week with a banged up Diontae Johnson (2.7). This week, they got back Saquon Barkley (26.7) in his first revenge game against the Giants racking up 187 scrimmage yards (more than Hurts). Malik Nabers (8.1) also returned from injury but was without the big play you’ve come to expect from the rookie. George Pickens (22.1) on the other hand had no issue hitting the big play on a pair of underthrown moonballs from Russell Wilson’s debut. Not many more points were required in this one after a pair of decent games from T-Law (15.02) and Jordan Love (18.8). With a probably CMC return in week 10, the arrow is pointing up for Team Tendonitis.

Token Female (105.3) survived a close game against Zero Whiffs Club (98.7). ZWC’s depth was tested with Jonathan Taylor (ankle) and CeeDee (bye) missing this week. In their stead were Zamir White (3.7) in a true backup role (4 touches) and Wan’Dale Robinson (8.3) who admittedly outscored Nabers. Anthony Richardson (8.76) carried the ball 14 times which is usually great for a dual threat quarterback. Against the Tua-less Dolphins, QBs have struggled for fantasy without needing to put many points up to win. That rang true for AR this week as he finished with 0 TDs and one fumble. ZWC did have a few studs though led by David Njoku (23.6) being a dump-off king after Watson’s exit. Token Female experienced their own woes headlined by the Aiyuk injury after only 4.3 points and Diggs (7.3) not converting in the redzone as he has done early in the year. Across the Field from Diggs, Romeo Doubs (17.4) had his second straight week in the spot light after being sat by the Packers for throwing a temper tantrum a few weeks again. George Kittle (15.2) has been a great value as well for Token Female losing his TE1 spot to Bowers this week but still putting up a solid game. Heading into Monday night, Token Female appeared to have the matchup in the bag against just Bucky Irving and King Henry and sitting with a 48+ point lead. The Ravens scored early and often leading to a perfect game script for ZWC; run first for the Ravens (15 carries), and pass first for the Bucs (54 receiving yards for Irving). 48 points is still a lot, but ZWC was closing in during the 4th quarter when King Henry broke off a huge run, reaching 21+ MPH and looked clear to score. From way off screen came a defender at the last moment and tackled Henry at the 11. Henry shockingly received the next two carries, but the TD went to Mark Andrews and pretty much squashed ZWC’s hopes of squeaking out a Monday Night Miracle and handing them their first loss of the year.

Good on Paper (121.58) blew past The Bear (74.26). The Bear had their namesake’s bye and a pair of injuries to Carr and Olave. Without their top 4 options, they were forced to start Tyler Huntley (9.48) and Aidan O’Connell (2.08; broken thumb) at QB. The good news is star games can make up for some duds. The bad news is The Bear was one of the teams without a single 20+ point player. David Montgomery (8) had their worst game of the year, scoring zero TDs and missing a decent chunk of the game with a knee injury. JK Dobbins (9.6) was also continuously stuffed by the Cardinals D Monday night. GoP survived a completely absent game from Tank Dell and Andy Dalton (2.02) who has faded back into irrelevance. They were carried by the trio of Jalen Hurts (22.76), Gibbs (32), and ARSB (25.2). Hurts only threw for 114 yards, but tush pushed his way to a good fantasy day, while Gibbs showed why he’s so highly valued; capable of ripping off multiple big plays in the same game. In fact, that trio were the only players needed (79.96 combined) to get past The Bear this week.

Mr. Big Chests (152.26) doubled up Taylor’s team (70.68). Taylor’s team looked like a decent lineup just with some bad beats. Shoutout for having the gumption to sit LaPorta (3.5) for Tucker Kraft (12.3) and for getting a decent game out of Nick Chubb’s first game in over a year (10.2). Tyreek Hill (2.3), however, has not had a good game without Tua this year averaging just 7.3 points. Marvin Harrison Jr. (5.1) still hasn’t quite connected with Kyler outside of week 2, and Chase Brown (7.3) split pretty evenly with Zack Moss on Sunday. Russell Wilson helped embarass Taylor’s team Sunday night smacking the Jets DST for -5 points. MBC had their typically great week surviving a slow start Thursday night from Alvin Kamara (8.4). Kamara ended up the lowest scoring player for MBC. Breece Hall (26.1) returned to super star level with over 100 receiving yards and QB2 on the week and on the year Baker Mayfield garbaged his way to a great fantasy day. Smooth sailing again this week from MBC

Waivers and trades

The offers report was deep this week with three bids each on Jalen McMillan ($11 to Pain Train) and Hunter Henry ($7 to Pain Train). MBC spent up on Jameis Winston ($44) even though they have Darnold and Mayfield. It may have been a decent add, however the only other bid was for $1 by GoP.

We had a pair of trades this week that I actually really like and think were balanced for all teams involved (not sarcastic I actually do like them both).

Good on Paper	Taylor’s Team
Receives Matt Stafford	Receives Isiah Pacheco

Pain Train	Team Jeff
Receives Bijan Robinson	Receives Amari Cooper
Receives Gardener Minshew	Receives Tua Tagovailoa

Predictions

I went 6-0 in week 6 (I’m simply the best), and 5-1 in week 7 for 27-5 on the year. Surely I can’t keep doing this… This week’s winners will be: 120 in my Lambo, Pain Train, Token Female, ZWC, GoP, and Mr. Big Chests.