Week 3

3 weeks in and many to go, but trends are starting to emerge. Some good. Some bad. Some just down right terrifying. Let’s take a look at where we stand:

• The Institute is 3-0. How you ask? I don’t know. He has somehow timed blow up performances from a rotating cast of WRs. Mahomes will cover a number of sins, but he had 13 points on his bench in Week 3. And outside of the Graham Gano stinker in week 1 has gotten double digit points from his Defense and Kicker every time. Something about this doesn’t pass the sniff test. Nico Collins, Mike Evans, and George Pickens aren’t going to keep alternating 20 point scoring weeks for you.

• The Kayak Pirates on the other end past the sniff test. The Dolphins are the new Chiefs. The biggest fear here is a Tua injury. If Tua stays healthy, what exactly is stopping this team?

• Every year I leave the draft wondering what Billy did over the summer. And then somehow he manages to pull together a team. He finds himself at 2-1 and more on his prospects below.

• I was pretty confident that handing Justin Herbert to Umphlett was one of the biggest headlines of the draft. With Kellen Moore as the OC, it was going to create an environment for Herbert to let it rip and get back to his gunslinging ways. The Chargers are going to be stupefying bad, but Herbert is going to score a ton of points. Deebo Samuel is the key. If we get the Deebo version from Thursday night again this team is extremely dangerous.

• Overbay is also 2-1. I am not sure how when looking at his roster. I don’t know about you but Jalen Hurts looks awful. Like really bad. I have watched large parts of two Eagles games right now and he just looks bad. But because he somehow gets at least 1 one yard rushing touchdown every game he still scores Fantasy Points. But he is missing receivers like he is planning to be Zach Wilson for Halloween. It’s ugly. It would be nice for Calvin Ridley to start scoring a ton of Fantasy Points though.

• The last of our 2-1 teams is none other than KRABS. Honestly his team stinks and he has already lost his #1 pick for the year. But the Cousins/Jefferson/Hockenson trio has somehow got him two victories so far. Basically, in games where the Vikings struggle or face a tough defense there is no way he is winning. This is like the anti Kayak Pirates. Dolphins vs. Vikings.

• Dirty Mike is 1-2 and Justin Fields is basically torching his season. I have no idea what to do with Fields at this point. You can’t drop him because then I will pick him up and he will be amazing. You can’t start him because he is terrible. I am not really sure you can trade him unless you will accept Rex Grossman in return. Christian McCaffery is the number one asset in Fantasy Football right now, but there are a lot of holes around him on this roster and Dirty Mike has to hope that some players step up to turn it around. And I don’t think Cam Akers is that guy.

• I would say something about Aaron, but I think he is probably tired of reading about his team in The Notes so I will give him a week off.

• So let’s take a second to talk about The Hype Train, black is for sunday. It’s not exactly the start Las Vegas was predicting for this squad. I mean the roster passes the look test. Easily. Lamar Jackson was a front runner for the MVP with a retooled offense. Amon-Ra St Brown was Matthew Berry’s Ride or Die this year. Chris Olave is an up and coming star. Hell Brent somehow got the second coming of Cooper Kupp Puka Nakua on his team. Bijan Robinson. Preseason Hype Master Darren Waller. HE HAS RAHMEEM MUST START WHO JUST SCORED FOUR TOUCHDOWNS AND 38 FANTASY POINTS. How is this team 0-3 and The Institute 3-0? I mean it doesn’t make ANY SENSE. WHO IS WRITING THIS NFL SCRIPT! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD! He has Zay Flowers on his bench who was one of my favorite Rookie WR this year. Dameon Pierce an underrated Lead RB on an offense that may be better than you think. Christian Watson an injured top 25 WR who is slated to come back tonight and maybe Jordan Love is good? Dalton Kincaid, a great TE keeper prospect on one of the best offenses in the NFL. Bryce Young the #1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft (ok maybe this was a bad idea). Tyler Allgier, a 1K rusher last year! Joshua Kelley current the #1 RB on an explosive AFC West offense. Brock Purdy, Mr Irrelevant himself. Jeff Wilson Jr. a backup on the Dolphins who……

Wait. He has Jeff Wilson Jr. on his team. Oh. That is what is happening. When will people learn.

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

Manager of the Weak

Well not everything has gone exactly right for The Commish to start the year. The Jaguars apparently stink and somehow Tank Bigsby has gotten TWO touchdowns even though the guy fumbles and is terrible. Saquon Hurt. Mike Williams out for the year. Bengals offense, terrible. And Rhamondre Stevenson looks like Trent Richardson right now. Sigh.

Move of the Week

Kansas City Defense – 11 Fantasy Points, 3 Sacks, 1 Int, 1 Fumble Recovery, Hosted 1 Mega Pop Star

While the Kansas City Defense was extremely efficient at stopping the Chicago Bears offense (although they had a lot of help from the Chicago Bears Offense) they were not very efficient at stopping the world from gawking at Taylor Swift showing up to the game. I mean check out these stats:

• Travis Kelce jersey sales soared 400%

• Viewership of the Chiefs Bears game increased by 63% among women age 18-49

• Travis Kelce added 300K new Instagram followers

• Jason and Travis Kelce’s podcast because #1 on Apple ITunes

• Chiefs ticket sales have increased 3X

• It is rumored that she will be in attendance for the Chiefs vs. Jets game Sunday night at Met Life. Stubhub is claiming that ticket sales have increased 3X this week for that game. Zach Wilson has to be extremely excited about all these middle aged women flocking to see him play Sunday Night.

Wild stuff. Oh and I guess VZ did good by starting their Defense since they scored 11 points.

MVP

Joe Mixon – 12 Fantasy Points, 19 Carries, 65 Rushing Yards, 1 Rushing Touchdown

Joe Mixon, Ken Walker III, Keenan Allen, Buffalo Defense, Davante Adams

Some huge performances in Week 3, but none bigger than Joe Mixon scoring 12 fantasy points on Monday night to secure a huge victory for KRABS. Mixon has had a slow start this year, but he had his highest number of carries and fantasy points on Monday night in a game that Joe Burrow was clearly not 100%. It was fantastic timing for the running back to step up with KRABS reeling from the crushing blow of Nick Chubb’s injury. This team as stated earlier is extremely top heavy and basically relying on the Vikings offense (which seems like a risky proposition) but its working so far and we will see how far they can go.

Manager Of The Week

Billy once again find himself as a top 4 team in the league. Did you know that Billy has been to the Playoffs 3 out of the last 4 years? After last year’s difficult Championship loss he finds himself with a great start to the 2023 season and the thing I admire about Billy is adversity. The guy just seems to always find a way. Even when it doesn’t make sense. Amari Cooper good? No way, but apparently he is. Zack Moss top 5 Running Back? Are you kidding me? Hunter Henry tied for #2 in Fantasy Points at TE? Well obviously. I mean Josh Allen has been the rock of this 4 year run, but the crazy thing is that Derrick Henry hasn’t been good (he has actually been sort of bad) and Cooper Kupp is hurt. These two players are clearly underperforming so it certainly looks like Billy is on a path of redemption. I just can’t wait to see what new random player he picks up and turns into gold next! Congrats to Billy for winning your Week 4 Manager of the Week!

Until Week 4…

- The Commish