Week 7

What's up party people? It's been a long couple of weeks for me with just madness at work and well madness in the ..... Baseball season?!?! Yes that's right people the Atlanta Braves are in the World Series and it has been a magical ride. I was at Game 1 of the NLCS and I will be heading to Atlanta for Game 5 of the World Series (with a pit stop in South Bend). I was in Nashville last week and will be in Milwaukee next week, so it's been busy. But hey guess, what The Notes are still here for your reading pleasure! And they are late after I won so I am equally delayed regardless of my performance.

Speaking of Performance, lets go ahead and talk about some interesting things:

Being 4-3 is Cool

There hasn't really been a ton of separation so far this year and currently there are 4 teams that are 4-3 and tied for 2nd place (Brent C, Jeff, Umphlett, and VZ). There are 4 more teams tied for 6th at 3-4 (Overbay, Me, Billy, and KRABS). And then we have the outliers in Aaron and Brent W. It's sort of wild how bunch up the standings are and really no one is out of it. Considering the parity and the fact that outside of Aaron and his crazy explosive WR duo of Chase and Kupp (sounds like a law firm) there really isn't any team running away with anything. It is going to be a wild few weeks and will be exciting to see which players excel and help teams pull away from the pack.

Ascending Wide Receivers?

Speaking of Chase and Kupp, man what is going on with these WR. Chase couldn't even catch a pass in the preseason (and Brandon Aiyuk was the next Jerry Rice in the preseason). Now look at Chase, he is unstoppable. He has the most receiving yards of any rookie WR through their first 7 career games. And Cooper Kupp continues to be the #1 WR in Fantasy. Clearly the response to this is to trade for Robert Woods. Will these WRs continue to play the same role with their teams or will we see a new dominating WR enter the ranks through the 2nd half of the year (hint hint: Michael Thomas).

What the heck happened to the Chiefs?

So I am sure Jeff is wondering, but seriously, what happened to the Chiefs? They didn't score a single Touchdown. I mean seriously. What happened?

Kyle Pitts: TE #1?

Travis Kelce started the year like gangbusters, but he has scored single digit fantasy points in 3 of the last 4 weeks and while he is still the #1 ranked TE, Mark Andrews has closed the gap and is only 4 points behind. Don't look now, but here comes Kyle Pitts. Over the last two weeks he has been completely integrated into the offense and has two 100+ receiving yard games with 16+ Fantasy Points. And with stats like below you have to think big things are on the way. With the way the Falcons are using him it wouldn't shock me if he was the #1 TE the rest of the way.

Sigh

I only have two words for you: BRANDON AIYUK.

Let's get to the awards...

Manager of the Weak

I don't really have a reason to pick KRABS for Manager of the Weak in Week 7. But I just like picking KRABS for awards that highlight when he loses. So, CONGRATS BUDDY. You are the MANAGER OF THE WEAK!

Move of the Week

Honestly, I was a little surprised when D'Ernest Johnson wasn't picked up off of waivers on Wed AM. But it didn't take Brent long to grab him off of the FA wire when Nick Chubb was ruled out in the Thursday night game. And what did D'Ernest do? He ran wild. 168 Total Yards and a touchdown and 22 Fantasy Points. In fact he led the entire NFL in Rushing Yards in Week 7. Considering the Browns had no offensive line, no QB, and a defense that had gotten steamrolled in multiple weeks this is pretty surprising, but Dirty Mike doesn't care! Congrats to Brent C for a saavy move and winning the Week 7 Move of the Week!

MVP

Jonathan Taylor, Alvin Kamara, D'Ernest Johnson, Eli Mitchell, Mike Evans

The chronicles of Black is for Sunday have been documented in multiple channels, but the summary is that Week 7 was a must win matchup against showmedamoney! And things looks bleak considering that he benched Tom Brady again! But Alvin Kamara to the rescue with a HUGE MNF performance (179 Total Yards and a TD). And even more positively, he was involved in the passing game again:

Congrats to Alvin Kamara and Brent for winning the Week 7 MVP!

Manager of the Week

Umphlett started off pretty slow this year going 0-3 with many questions around the surprising overall #1 pick of Najee Harris, but since that point he is undefeated and looking for more. Heck he even won in Week 7 starting Jameis Winston so you know you are living good when you get away with that madness. And Umphlett has done this without Saquon Barkley, with Darren Waller basically becoming a secondary target (and injured) for the Raiders, and starting Christian Kirk?!?!? There is still a ton of upside in this roster and while he still relies on his unconventional methods, could we be looking at rise of the phoenix with Umphlett being relevant in Fantasy Football again? All we need is a trade for Antonio Brown and it will be like 2014 again (except with a Face Shield vs. a Belt Buckle).

Well that's all I got.

Until Week 8...

-The Commish