News:

In league news, I want to start by letting everyone know that I was able to reach Jay this week to check in on him. I don’t want to be cryptic about Jay’s status nor do I want to overshare but it sounds like he might be dealing with some health stuff and he confirmed he hasn’t been managing his team this year. As a result, I’ve told him not to worry about fantasy football and that we would take over his team.

As a result I’m going to recommend both an interim and longer term plan to address the situation. In the short term, I will lock Jaydawgs and set his weekly line-up based on Yahoo projections. I’m also open to the idea of an interim (or permanent) new manager taking over his team.

We’ve typically filled vacancies in the past through “nominations” by existing managers, so if you know of someone who would be a good fit, please let me know. What’s a good fit? Someone who ticks the “friends and family” box and who also has sufficient skill, knowledge and commitment to be “casually competitive”.

If we get a name (or names) this year, I won’t likely make the decision in a vacuum so don’t be surprised if I create a bit of an ad hoc committee to help me decide.

Shark move of the week:

Honourable mention to Neil for high score of the week but I must say his start to the season is a bit like that vegan joke (How do you know someone’s vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.). Still, credit where credit is due. We’re a full third of the way through and he’s leading in record and total points (hopefully he’s not afraid of heights).

This week though I’m going with the Brown Dawgs for plugging in former Cowboy Rico Dowdle and dropping him into his starting line-up for a cool 35.4 points. Only Ken knows how much of that was brilliance and how much was desperation. When the bench is thin, the new guy goes in? That’s all I got.

Guppy move of the week:

I may focus on a particular manager’s bye week ugliness more than once this year because it seems like collectively, we did not do very well at this (myself included). Brandon and Ken in particular had pretty sticky bye weeks. It’s like the little league soccer teams playing the week half the kids are away on vacation. If we don’t forfeit the game, everyone gets two popsicles!

Smack talk award of the week:

Lot’s of good work this week but I’m going to give a slight edge to Andy for his semi-sudden uptick in banter and the wager over QB futility. To Grid, I don’t understand the world anymore either. Wentz is good. Danny Dimes is good. Neil is in first place. I can only assume the locusts will be arriving any day now.

Welcome to fantasy hell award of the week:

Trey Benson and Omarion Hampton owners remind us we’re officially at the point we need to handcuff the handcuff. Maybe I’m old and grumpy but there seems to be a real uptick in “ugly” football this year. If you played a drinking game based on blocked kicks, missed kicks and tipped passes, you would be under the table before the first half was over in some of these games.

In terms of this week’s award, I am choosing the Brewers, who only managed to score two more points than Jay’s team despite having nine players and a manager. Ouch…