Week 2

What up Party People! It’s time for the Week 2 Notes! Now I am sure everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Week 1 Notes (even though they were embarrassingly late). I know you wait all week with bated breath for The Longest Consecutive Running Column in the Playoffs league so I am back for more of your reading enjoyment. I figured I would start off this week’s Notes with a few “observations” of random teams and players in the league:

• Did you know that Jordan Love is the #1 highest scorer in the league now? Talk about irony with Aaron Rodgers out for the year. Love is #4 in overall QBR after two weeks (after Brock Purdy, Dak Prescott, and Tua, what a crew). He has two consecutive weeks with at least 25 Fantasy Points with 3 Passing Touchdowns and even 10+ rushing yards in both games. But what is odd is that he is 23rd in Passing Yards and his completion % is 55.8. So it will be interesting to see if he continues to have the same Touchdown outputs. Something tells me no.

• Puka Nacua. It’s means “No Worries”. Do you know that Puka has 35!!!!!!!! Targets through two games? He had 20 in Week 2! He has 10 more targets more than 2nd place Justin Jefferson. That is unbelievable. I don’t know about you but is it possible that Puka Nacua is actually Cooper Kupp in disguise? I mean for many years we all came to the conclusion that the only person Matthew Stafford could throw a football in the direction of was Cooper Kupp. This Puka guy has to just be a fake name for Cooper Kupp. That is the only logical conclusion right? I know that Brent Woodcox is officially on the Puka train with him moving into his starting lineup so it will be interesting to see if this keeps up. Honestly I think it will at least until the real Kupp is back. If he comes back.

• In Week 1, 100% of managers played two RBs. In Week 2 only 80% of Managers played two running backs with VZ and Brent C becoming the first managers in league history to start 4 WR. This is a watershed moment in the league and something we should all remember for decades. It will be interesting to see how this evolves through the rest of the year.

• Christian McCaffery looks like an absolute force with two straight games over 110 rushing yards and at least 18 fantasy points. With Nick Chubb now out for the year let it be a cautionary tale for everyone that many times the “obvious” path is the “right” path.

• Who is mentally prepared for the Tar Heels to lose Saturday night at Pittsburgh in an absolutely ridiculous and excruciating way? I know I am.

• Is Devonta Smith the #1 WR in Philly now? He has two games of at least 10 points and 15 targets. AJ Brown only has 11 targets and 9 total Fantasy Points. I am pretty sure that for multiple week at the end of last year they essentially had the same amount of Fantasy Points. AJ Brown will be good, but I think Smith may be a top 10 WR right now.

• I don’t want to toot my own horn, but did anyone see my players fight like lions on Sunday? At one point after the 4:25 PM games I was down 91-66. I had Saquon Barkley and the Dallas Defense. Brent Cozart had McCaffery, Aiyuk, Jahan Dotson, and the Denver Defense. It looked bleak. But never say die right? Saquon scored two touchdowns and willed his Giants to come back from a 21 point deficit and the Dallas Defense collected sacks and turnovers. With both the Cowboys and Giants game coming to an end, the score sat at 90-87. The valliant comeback seemed to be coming up just short. BUT WAIT. Brian Robinson became my hero by rushing for a 15 yard touchdown with 7:18 left in the game to put the Denver Defense at giving up 35+ points which is -4 points pushing Brent’s score down to 87. Where we tied! And of course since the league just hates those ties the tiebreaker goes to the team with less kicker points. And since the Raiders stink and Daniel Carlson had scored 5 points for the 2nd consecutive week, it was one less point than Evan McPherson’s 6 points. So The Commish’s valiant effort was rewarded with an amazing comeback victory. Fantasy Football is amazing right? Right? RIGHT?!?!?!

• Did anyone notice the weekly Yahoo Fantasy Matchup recaps are “powered by ChatGPT AI”? It’s everywhere.

• I got the following text yesterday: “WTF was Hinton doing spending $51 on Ford when he already has 3 starting RBs? I felt ridiculous bidding X for a RB you know the coaches want to replace anyway.” I have not shared the bid to keep the identity of said texted private. But let’s respond to said texter. I would imagine what Hinton was doing was he was trying to improve his team. Mr. Texter you don’t get to invest the FAAB dollars at the end of the year. The best you can do is trade them in for mini cookies from a 5 year old box of Cookie Crisp. That’s it. And oh have you seen Hinton’s roster? It’s terrible. He started Najee Harris one week for goodness sakes. He is starting Skyy Moore. Jerome Ford probably looks like Marshall Faulk to him right now.

• I don’t know about you, but I certainly noticed that Umphlett picked up Taysom Hill this week. Here we go. Again.

• I said this last week, but if the Lions actually include Gibbs in the offense and he starts getting 15+ touches the league is in trouble. Jeff’s invest everything in the Dolphins strategy may actually pay off like my invest everything in the Atlanta Braves Fantasy Baseball strategy is working this year.

• The injuries so far this year are just absolutely brutal. Rodgers, Jones, Kupp, Ekeler, Burrow, Chubb, Barkley, Montgomery, Richardson, Aiyuk. I would include JK Dobbins on this list but I only wanted to list players that were good.

Before we get to the awards let’s check this week’s episode of Gridiron Heights:

Manager of the Weak

Well last week Aaron was extremely close to earning Manager of the Weak, but The Institute was clearly the winner. This week This is the Way decided to “double down” and make absolutely sure he won it. We talked a little bit about his roster, but is there a bigger Jerome Ford fan in the country right now other than Aaron Hinton and Jerome’s Mom? I am not sure. It’s an absolute gong show right now in Mandalorian land. Aaron has yet to top 76 points on the season and it’s so bad that he has actually decided to bench Joe Burrow. Is Geno Smith the answer? JaMarr Chase has been impacted by the struggles of Burrow, Josh Jacobs has looked like a player who missed all of training camp, and DeAndre Swift had a coming out party on Thursday night, on the bench (something tells me that Week 2 will be his biggest game all year). So things are in disarray this year, but maybe Jerome Ford can be Grogu and bring order to the galaxy.

Move of the Week

Nico Collins – 9 Targets, 7 Receptions, 146 Receiving Yards, 1 Receiving Touchdown

Considering that VZ has held Nico as a keeper since 2013 in his 10 year plan I guess its only fitting that he would finally have a good game. He is no Tank Dell, but maybe The Institute is onto something with this player.

MVP

Saquon Barkley – 20 Points, 17 Carries, 63 Rushing Yards, 1 Rushing Touchdown, 7 Targets, 6 Receptions, 29 Receiving Yards, 1 Receiving Touchdown.

Saquon Barkley, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Mike Evans, Jalen Hurts

FIGHT LIKE LIONS!

Manager Of The Week

Don’t look now, but Overbay is 2-0. The last time Overbay was 2-0 was 2021. He then preceded to lose 4 straight weeks. So I am sure he is hoping that history doesn’t repeat itself. Jalen Hurts seems to be back after a strong Week 2, but the future of this team really will live at WR. Can Moore and McLaurin be consistent top 20 WR? It the answer to that question is yes I think this is a team with a strong chance at making the Playoffs. If the answer is no, Overbay has to be hoping that Ekeler is back. Fast.

Until Week 3…

- The Commish