Week 8 Summary / Week 9 Preview

Week 8 is in the books, and I'm sure many of you wished you had started players you kept on your Bench.  

Using my own Team as an example, I started Robert Woods in my Flex who was projected at 17.7 Points (but ended up only scoring 12), and I benched Adrian Peterson (projected at 13.2) who ended up scoring 26.6 Points (which would have made the difference for me to beat Chris).  Although there are many NFL players who produce consistent points, I love Fantasy Football because of the many Boom or Bust players.  Every week I debate playing a safe, consistent player or rolling the dice with a player who may either have a HUGE game or barely score any points.  

The reason I love Fantasy Football more than any other Fantasy Sport, is the huge swings in projections as the games go on.  I keep an eye on everyone's team while I'm watching the games, and there is always at least one player who has 0 points going into the 4th Quarter, and then will put up a huge yardage TD that will rack up a lot of points in a single late game play.

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Week 8 Summary

Faith (8-0) continues with an 8 game undefeated streak holding first place in Conference 2, with Uncle D (4-4) narrowly moving into second place after the Patriots vs Bills NFL Monday Night Football game. In Conference 1, Chris (6-2) moved into first place after the Matchup against Brian (5-3).

Chris led all scoring with 161.6 points. Faith had the top player, with Steelers RB James Conner who led all FFL players with 38.2 points. Conner who had 146 rushing yards, 2 TDs and 66 receiving yards, continues as the Steelers star RB replacing season contract holdout Le’Veon Bell.

As of the end of Week 8, these are the current Standings

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Week 9 Preview:

Week 9 is starting to show the wear-and-tear on key NFL players with new injuries and unknown recoveries affecting FFL Team rosters. Week 9 is also the week of the NFL trade deadline. Tuesday’s trades such as WR Golden Tate (Lions to Eagles) and WR Demaryius Thomas (Broncos to Texans) may prompt FFL Team Owners to evaluate FFL point values based on new NFL team assignments, as well as WRs on their current rosters.

As a follow up to his Week 8 strategy, Uncle D is willing to share a post of his current dilemma for Week 9:

1. WR Golden Tate trade: Increases PPR value of Lions WR Kenny Golladay.
2. WR Demaryius Thomas trade: Increased PPR value on Texans (Stick with the consistent Jarvis Landry or roll the dice with Thomas?)
3. Steelers did not have a chance to trade Le’Veon Bell. (Keep or Drop?).

The Matchups for Week 9 are as follows:

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I hope you all have a Happy Halloween and Fantastic Week!

Week 7 Summary / Week 8 Preview

The Season is halfway through, and that means a chance at redemption to beat whomever may have beat you Week 1.

From this point forward, you will be facing opponents you have already played against.  However, your starting lineup will definitely be much different than the first time you played your opponent due to BYE Weeks and injuries.

Using Uncle D as an example:
Uncle D lost to Team Jon during Week 1, but his lineup for this re-match is much different than the first time they opposed each other.

Uncle D's Week 1 Lineup included:
QB: Matt Ryan (Who has a BYE this week)
RB1: Jay Ajayi (Out for the Season w/ injury)
WR1: Demaryius Thomas (Who Uncle D has opted not to use in the past couple of weeks, due to low points this Season)

As of writing, Uncle D's Lineup will be different with the following changes:
QB: Carson Wentz
RB1: Tarik Cohen
WR1: Kenny Golladay

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Week 7 Summary:

After 7 weeks, Faith is still undefeated at 7-0 holding first place in Conference 2, with a three-way tie for second place shared by Jon, Erica and Uncle D (all 3-4). In Conference 1, there is a two-way tie for first place shared by Brian and Chris (both 5-2).

Uncle D led all scoring with 175.4 points which helped him move into the tie for second place. Chris had the top player, Kareem Hunt who led all FFL players with 37.1 points.

As of the end of Week 7, these are the current Standings:

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Week 8 Preview:

As stated in the beginning of this blog, Week 8 starts the second round for the previous FFL Team matchups. Repeats of previous point spreads and outcomes are likely to change and possibly go the other way due to numerous injuries, roster changes and BYEs. Expect to see more attention given to the ESPN Fantasy Football weekly emails alerting FFL Team Owners of injuries and player status reports for late game-day decisions that may affect starting rosters.

The Week 8 Matchups are as follows:

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I encourage all Teams to stay vigilant, as the top 2 Teams of each conference will go to Play-offs, and we are only at the halfway point of the Season.  Once Play-offs begin, every Team will continue to play each other to determine the final overall Rank of each Team at the end of the Season (I don't think anybody wants to end the Season in last place).

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I hope you all have a fantastic Week and Go Dodgers!

Week 6 Summary / Week 7 Preview

After 6 weeks, Faith is still undefeated at 6-0 holding first place in Conference 2, with Chris (4-2) holding on to second place. In Conference 1, Brian (5-1) held on to first place after playing Jon (3-3) who held on to second place alone, as Uncle D lost to Chris.

Erica led all scoring with 156 points with an amazing comeback despite having two players on the starting roster that did not play Week 6. Fortunately Erica had WR Tyreek Hill who led all FFL players with 39.2 points and WR Davante Adams who scored 35.2 points in the Monday Night Football game where Aaron Rodgers led a Packers late 4th Quarter victory over the 49ers.

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As of the end of Week 6, these are the current Standings:

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WEEK 6 Observations and Week 7 Preview

Week 6 showed interesting League Activity involving QBs such as: Ryan Fitzpatrick (Dropped) and Colin Kaepernick (Added and then Dropped).  So, what about so-called veteran ‘elite’ QBs?

Patriots QB Tom Brady has one of the quickest pass releases in the NFL in addition to the nearly impenetrable pocket built by the Patriots offensive line.  However, he is still mobile as demonstrated in the Week 6 game against the Chiefs where he ran in near the goal line because his passing threat left rookie outside LB Breeland Speaks frozen trying to avoid a roughing the passer penalty.

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is a 4^th Quarter comeback threat capable of 60 yard hail mary endzone passes.  He can also scramble and turn collapsing pockets into long 1^st down runs.

…and then there’s Eli Manning

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The Week 7 Matchups are as follows:

I hope you all have an awesome week!

Week 5 Summary / Week 6 Preview

Week 5 is in the books, and after looking at how all the Teams' players performed I am sure many of you are reevaluating who you are going to start Week 6.

Faith is still undefeated with a 5-0 record holding first place in Conference 2, with Chris (3-2) holding on to second place. In Conference 1, Brian (4-1) who led all teams with 164 points continued to hold first place with Jon (3-2) moving into second place.

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After looking at both my own Team along with all the other Teams in our League, these are just some things that I've been thinking about.

Generally speaking, if you have a "Go-To" running back who handles majority of the carries, you can expect relatively consistent performance with the only factors being the Run Defense your RB is facing / if they may be not 100% healthy.  

On the other hand, Receivers are much more unpredictable, as the amount of times they are targeted per game has varied greatly per week.  Many of you may have noticed that your top drafted Receivers will score a ridiculous amount of points for your team one week, and the next week have a very mediocre performance (Boom or Bust).  There are TONS of reasons for this, but I feel there are 3 major factors which determine the performance for Top Tier Receivers:

1.  Top Tier Receivers are often double teamed by the opposing defense which makes it very hard for the QB to get the ball to them.  A good thing thing to look out for is the Fantasy Analysis icon next to your Player's name which will let you know if that week the Receiver will be facing elite Cornerbacks (the likes of Richard Sherman, Aqib Talib, Josh Norman, etc).  

2.  How good is Defense's Pass-Rush / your Receiver's Offensive line?  Even if you have an excellent Receiver, if your Receiver's QB is under pressure / being sacked every play, it does not allow enough time for Receivers to make big plays (especially if they are vertical-route Receivers).  

3.  What I like to call the double-edged sword.  While it generally is tempting to start a Receiver if some of his fellow WRs are not playing that game due to injury (because there is a higher % he will be targeted), the double-edged sword to this is that the Defense can afford to put a double or triple coverage on your best Receiver (going back to point #1).

Just to give a real world example of this, these factors have definitely come into play for me with Rob Gronkowski in the first 4 weeks of the Season.  Prior to the acquisition of Josh Gordon / end of suspension for Julian Edelman, Gronk has either put up amazing points or was a complete bust.  Because there were so few receivers in the first 4 weeks on the Patriots, it meant either Gronk would be get a bulk of the targets from Brady, or he would not be open at all because the opposing Defense could put two or three men on him.

An interesting tool built into ESPN Fantasy Football which I discovered recently, is the "IBM Insights".  I find it very helpful in deciding who to start as it gives better insight of the Boom / Bust chance of each player, rather than just a single Projection number.  You can access this by clicking on your Players and tabbing over to "IBM Insights".  The tool looks like this:

In summation, look at the match up for your Receivers.  You can roll the dice that they will have good performances despite the fact they will be heavily defended, or you may want to play more conservative and go with a Receiver who gets consistent catches / points (but may not have the ceiling for very high Boom points).

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As of the end of Week 5, these are the current standings:

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WEEK 6 Preview and Observations:

League Activity shows Teams’ reactions to the status of players (Q or O) due to recoveries or new injuries. Notable player injuries affecting their individual point production during Week 5 were: J. Ajayi (Uncle D), B. Cooks (Faith) and D. Cook (Erica).  

If you need to pickup a replacement player this week due to injury or BYE Week, you'd better be quick as I've noticed everyone has been very active rearranging their teams last week!

This week's match ups are as follows:

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I hope you all have a great week and as always I look forward to the Smack Talk!

Week 4 Summary / Week 5 Preview

Week 4 has come to a close, and with it brings the end of summer and the beginning of BYE weeks.  The BYE weeks have definitely played a determining factor in the wins and losses for each FFL Team, as people have had to swap out their best players for Bench Reserves or Waiver players.

On a side note, how do you all feel about the new "roughing the passer rules"?.  My opinion is that the referees have called way too many fouls when linebackers have sacked QB's.  During many of these plays, there has been nothing that would have been considered illegal contact last season, and I don't understand how a defensive player is supposed to tackle the quarterback "gently".  I appreciate the NFL's attempts to keep players from being injured, but most commentators from Cris Collinsworth to Jason Witten have expressed that many of these fouls are ticky-tack.  /end rant.

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End of September Standings/Highlights:

Faith continued to lead all teams through the 4th Week of Fantasy Football games in September with an undefeated 4-0 record, while four teams with 1-2 records fought it out for second place in their respective Conferences. Smart juggling of starters and bench players, along with roster drops and pickups kept league play competitive.

As of the end of Week 4, these are the current Standings:

Faith led all teams with a total of 201 points including RB A. Kamara (41.1 pts) as the top Week 4 scorer. PPR WR and FLEX player matchups made game watching interesting along with high QB point scoring by J. Goff (39.3 pts), K. Cousins (31.7) and D. Watson (31.1 pts).______________________________________________

WEEK 5 Look Ahead
Watch for possible FFL player roster changes affected by NFL player potential trades, suspensions and injuries. Uncle D is still waiting on Le’Veon Bell, and is glad to see Julian Edelman coming back to the Patriots after his four week suspension.

Also, I have noticed some teams could use new players for various positions, and some teams have excess players, so just as a reminder you all can propose trades to each other.

Week 5's match ups are:

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Just a reminder, at the end of Week 13, the top two teams from each Conference will advance to Playoffs.  Four teams are guaranteed to make the Playoffs.  As of writing, the standings are very close and with 9 more weeks until Fantasy Playoffs begin, anything can happen (Uncle D started 0-2, but after Week 4 he is currently in 3rd Place).

I hope you all have a great week, and look forward to the smack talk!