News:

There’s a lot going on in the NFL’s weekly news cycle so it’s very easy for me to miss stories but the ones that jumped out were Shedeur Sanders and JJ McCarthy.

A lot of people dislike Sanders but to be fully transparent, I don’t know enough about him to dislike him yet. He has been branded as cocky, seen by many as someone with a mouth that “writes cheques” his talent can’t cash. This week’s post game interview drew a lot of criticism but I honestly thought I just saw a 23 year old rookie who was just really excited about winning a football game. He wasn’t good but I don’t think you can judge much from that either way.

McCarthy is another story though. He’s been really bad. Unlike Sanders, he had a full off season of prep and was the de facto starter when the Vikes sent Darnold and Danny Dimes packing. This is the kind of mistake that can set a franchise back a decade. You are wasting prime Justin Jefferson, a solid running game and an okay defense. A window that should be opening is stuck shut. At this point, if McCarthy is going to be any good, he’s going to have to follow the career path (ironically) of a Darnold or Jones.

One last small one: JSN set a new Seahawks single season franchise record for receiving yards… in eleven games.

In Clan McDonald news, we’re another week closer to sorting through the ins and outs and the haves and have nots. It’s going to be fun since we have eight teams absolutely still in it and another that might still be in it if a number of things break the right way.

We also had a new record for weekly points, which was a bit of a fun experience. By half time in the early games I wasn’t sweating a win anymore but by Sunday night I was sweating a chance to do something cool and for quite awhile it looked like it wasn’t going to be my night. McMillan did just enough though.

Shark move of the week:

Honourable mention to AOB for starting the DEF playing Cleveland. Another honourable mention to Scott for sitting Kamara and rolling with Kenneth Gainwell. Grid was also rewarded for not flinching on Jeanty or the Rams’ DEF.

This week’s winner earns the distinction due to being in one of the closest contests we’ve had all year and earned the win, in no small part due to starting Hunter Henry. Henry is a prototypical fantasy TE. He can score you 8 points six straight weeks and then score 28 points. This week it was 27.50 and Archie needed every last one. When the dust settles, being 7 – 5 right now (as opposed to 6 – 6) might end up being awfully important…

Guppy move of the week:

It’s basically an easy lay-up to give Brian the award for leaving Justin Fields in his line-up despite the news of his benching coming out as early as Monday. Fun fact: He had an empty roster spot and there were no less than nine starting QBs available in the free agent pool on Sunday morning. Another fun fact: Every one of those FAs scored enough points to secure a win for Brian.

Smack talk award of the week:

The award this week goes to Ken for his QB wisdom, which should probably be etched on the bathroom wall of every sports bar in existence.

Yes, the topic of the week was Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, along with some related fantasy scripture, parables and cautionary tales. These guys are the first QBs off the draft board for a reason and at any point you can filter QB stats by points per game or even season totals and you’ll see Allen at the top.

What may be less apparent to all but the managers who have him, is there are weeks where his stats look more like Marcus Mariota. Perhaps the worst part is that this often has nothing to do with Allen. Often it happens because all the Bills need that week is Marcus Mariota. Have fun deciding which weeks those are.

Welcome to fantasy hell award of the week:

Plenty of candidates this week but a few notable ones:

• Matt Stafford was 27 passing yards shy of a three point bonus.
• Mayfield has a shoulder sprain, which may force Archie to the FA pool and right now that’s looking a bit like the all-you-can-eat buffet at Golden Corral an hour before closing time…
• This week the forth, fifth and sixth highest scoring teams (Ceilidh, Brandon and Ayden) had the good fortune of playing the first, second and third highest scoring teams respectively. I don’t think I’ve seen that before.