News:

The big news in Clan McDonald this week was of course our annual outing to Western, for an afternoon of football, camaraderie and yes, perhaps a couple of beverages in the parking lot. It was nice to see everyone and catch up a bit on a stellar October day!

The highlights from fantasy were Scott managing to keep his record perfect at 4 – 0 and Ceilidh posting a rare 200+ point weekend. As they like to say in baseball, it’s still early but we seem to have a touch more “parity” at this point in the season than we usually do. As a team residing in the basement, I’m taking that as a win.

Random thought of the week:

I’m hearing more rumblings than usual about injuries this year. My sense is that it is worse – not just the number of high profile injuries but also the overall volume of them. I can’t speak to causes but the result is a further diluted product that was already fairly watered down.

Injuries are not the only reason NFL teams are taking guys like Joe Mixon for a test drive (who hasn’t played since 2024) or that fantasy managers are interested in Tyreek Hill, who is 32 and a year removed from a “gruesome” knee injury. We seem to have more than the usual number of “black hole” offenses this year. Through four weeks, there are nine NFL teams with less than 800 passing yards. There are eleven teams with less than 400 rushing yards. Yikes…

Shark move of the week:

Honourable mention to Scott for drafting Ken Walker at the end of the first round, who is proving to be a fantasy MVP so far this year. As a Seahawks fan I’m pretty familiar with him but I would not have been able to pull the trigger on that pick there. As for KWIII, all he’s done so far is lead the league in fantasy points for a running back. Not a bad ROI…

Honourable mention as well to the Piper for having one of the best looking 1 – 3 teams I’ve ever seen. With a revitalized Deebo and a suddenly deep roster of RBs, I doubt he’ll be 2 – 6 four weeks from now.

Props to Archie as well for a solid week and in particular, for picking the right one of his four QBs to start. That exercise would not be my idea of a good time but if it works, it works.

As great as everyone is, a winner must be selected and this week I’m going with Ceilidh. 201.80 is quite a number and perhaps even more impressive is that it isn’t even an “optimal line-up” situation. With over 100 points on her bench, it could have been much higher. Nice job!

Guppy move of the week:

It’s not uncommon to be unable to give the guppy award but it is fairly rare to see it happen this early in the season. Truth is, I think we’re all doing our share of point chasing with varying results. You’d have to be a special kind of genius to predict Bryce Young’s week (not to mention all the guys who benefited) and you can hardly be blamed for benching a new waiver wire darling to see if they’re going to do anything first. Such is fantasy…

Smack talk award of the week:

It would be impossible to summarize the smack talk that took place in person in the Huron parking lot but suffice to say it was primo and highly entertaining. We had a bit of fun with Andy’s latest helmet (nothing weird Andy, don’t worry) and did a pretty good job initiating the rookie.

Excellent work as well in the chat room but I think I will give the “co-nod” to Piper and I for tying fantasy football into young Dallas’ football game on Sunday, and in particular, the disappointing results experienced by the Defensive Coordinator. It reminds me of the famous quote attributed to John McKay, when asked how he felt about his team’s execution. He said, “I’m all for it.”

Welcome to fantasy hell award of the week:

We can certainly recap the latest round of injuries – Barkley, Lamar, Baker, Mariota and so on but I think the award this week goes to Vandyy, who’s early rookie luck may be wearing off a little. This week he had to watch Isaiah Davis ride the pine and Rashee Rice shut it down due to a hamstring. The results were those infamous double zeros the rest of us cagey veterans know so well. Buck up little camper! It gets worse!