News:

I don’t want to start equating injuries with news. They are news certainly but not likely news to anyone here.

Early in the season we’re still trying to figure out which teams and players are gold and which are fool’s gold. What we’re seeing so far is the dominance of the “superstars” and quarterbacks. Fantasy experts told us the QB position would be deep this year and while it’s still early, that prediction is holding up. Our top twenty has guys like Bryce Young hanging with Mahomes and Dak and Tyler Shough holding their own against Hurts and Caleb Williams.

Are we buying the Raiders at 2 – 0? How about the Vikings? I need to see more. I think I am buying the Commanders, Falcons and Dolphins at 0 – 2 though. The Browns and Jets are interesting at 1 – 1. Was this week a “dead cat bounce” type game for Watson and Geno or can they still play? I’m not sure but these appear to be teams with a 7 – 9 ceiling who ought to be thinking seriously about early draft slots in the first round next year.

In Clan McDonald, the Piper, Ceilidh and I are trying to rebound from a rough start. I’m not too worried about the Claymores, who have a pretty narrow spread between points scored for and against. They also have the misfortune of having the second most points scored against them so far. At the top, the Champ, Chloe and Brawlers have kept their uniforms clean with a couple of wins. Hopefully we can keep them from running away from the pack.

Random thought of the week:

I don’t have much this week but I did want to comment on Dart and Daniels. I don’t like the word predict but both are players I am not expecting to have long careers due to the way they’ve played the game so far. That said, I have to admit both suffered serious injuries due to plays that were not of the variety I was worried about. Neither was tuned up while trying to take on a linebacker for one extra pointless yard.

Dart took a sack in the pocket, something QBs do every week. Most get up and move on while Dart unfortunately took “high – low” hits that compromised his knee. Daniels got his foot stepped on by his lineman and dislocated his previously injured elbow. I’m no elite athlete but I’ve dislocated my shoulder six or seven times playing hockey and I can tell you, it wouldn’t take much for it to happen again at this point. I’ve done it horsing around with the kids in a swimming pool so I can’t even imagine being a pro QB.

Shark move of the week:

A shark move isn’t always one that produces heroic results. This week Ken had a less than easy choice between Dak and Love and chose the right one. Another example would be Brian, who despite a lot of Qs and Os, managed to squeeze enough points out of players like Rachaad White, Mark Andrews and Josh Downs to secure a win.

This week I’ll give a slight nod to Grid who just had a solid line-up top to bottom as well as an equally solid bench. We’ve seen a bit of early adversity but winter is coming and that kind of depth is going to come in handy.

Guppy move of the week:

I’ll mention Mort again as more of a cautionary tale. Puka was a pre-game decision Monday night and didn’t play. With an empty bench spot, the play here was to take a flyer on a Rams or Giants WR. When you have a situation like this, the shark move is to arrange your Thursday and early Sunday players in your RB and WR spots and your later and/or questionable players in your flex spots. It would have been handy to be able to play a WR or RB (or even the TE Ferguson) but when your flex players play early, there’s nothing you can do. Fortunately it didn’t cost him the W…

Despite all that, I still have to give the award to myself again. In anticipation of a tough match-up against Dan, I made exactly two line-up changes, benching the Vikings DEF for the Chargers and later, Waddle for McConkey because I realized I was going to need a “home run” to keep up. As it turned out, mighty Ladd struck out and Minn held the record-scoring Bears to 3 points. as I said to Doug later, I’m going to send out my resume to A&A Sanitation because everything I touch turns to shit.

Smack talk award of the week:

Props to Neil this week for predicting victory but much of the tough work in the corners was performed by the Piper, accurately predicting BigPlay’s defeat. It appears Doug is planning to discuss strategy at the Western game but I’m not entirely sure if it’s winning strategy with Ayden or losing strategy with Neil (maybe both?).

We used to have a “Too Tall” in our league and now we may have a “Two Ply”. We’ll have to see if the name sticks I guess (like a cling-on?). Personally I’d rather have a two-pack of Guinness…

Welcome to fantasy football hell award of the week:

Perusing the results this week, I feel like Vandyy may have watched an important one slip through his fingers. There’s nothing worse than seeing your star player removed from a game early and knowing that 0.67 point total is frozen forever. It also can’t be fun knowing you’re up against the champ who is getting a rare clunker from his own QB and DEF (4.90 combined points) but you can’t take advantage. Having a number of good options to choose from for your starting line-up sounds like a good problem to have but at decision time, it can turn out just as bad as having poor options.

Archie suffered the misfortune of 71.20 points this week with (checks notes) no zeros and 38.30 points from Lamb. That works out to an average of 4.11 points from the rest of his line-up. It’s not much but it is a bit better than the two empty slots on his bench.

Last but not last, Mooglar is suffering a bit of whiplash from recent point chasing efforts, which if you made it to the Western Fair, is a lot like playing Whack-A-Mole. Kittle or Kraft? Burrow or Lamar? I’m not sure I’m in any position to offer advice except, when you have Makai Lemons, make Makai Lemonade.