Week 8

AND GOOD BYE

I am just too excited. I can't believe it. It has been a battle for a month but guess what people, the Atlanta Braves are WORLD SERIES CHAMPION.

I cannot describe to you the emotions I had when this happened.

I know I have been late on the notes the past two weeks, but now that I am not staying up till after midnight 3 nights a week I should have more time to get this out earlier.

GO BRAVES!

Tie Fighter

If you were paying attention Aaron beat VZ 86-84. But then somehow VZ got another two points via stat corrections for a Buffalo Bills blocked kick. Which then tied the matchup. But VZ's kicker outscored Aaron's so by our rules Aaron wins the tiebreaker. And I gave him an extra point and he officially wins the week 8 matchup 87-86. Brent's no ties rule strikes again.

Ouch

The list of injuries from the past week is long. And impactful.

Obviously the big one is Derrick Henry and well that is big. He has a Jones fracture in his foot and is out for 6-10 weeks. This is not good news for the Kayak Pirates. Making matters worse is that James Robinson is Day to Day with a Heel issue and not practicing this week.

*whispers* And in a strange weird outcome is Patrick Mahomes......... not good anymore? *end whispers.

And in a surprising (actually not that surprising twist) your boy Adrian Peterson is back in the NFL! Can Adrian establish himself as a RB2 and provide stability for the Kayak Pirates? He still does have a chance to break some big records in the NFL:

But of course this tweet doesn't give me alot of confidence:

In other news, Michael Thomas announced that he is out for the year (I thought it was a little suspicious that there was basically NO news on him anywhere). And while not an injury a terrible situation with Henry Ruggs being released from the Raiders. So a very impactful week to roster construction and it just further proves that depth is critical to success in Fantasy Football.

One thing that will be super interesting with the injury to Henry is how does the Titans offense evolve. AJ Brown has been a WR#1 but does he ascend even more now with Henry on the shelf? Maybe we all should eat bad burritos.

And of course the big news this week is the fact that the NFL doesn't respect Aaron Rodgers homeopathic. COME ON ROGER, IT'S SCIENCE MAN! HE WAS THE HOST OF JEOPARDY FOR GOODNESS SAKES!

Go Heels!

No I am not talking about another disappointing loss for the Football team in South Bend. I am talking about the emergence of Michael Carter as a RB1! We knew he was very good, but he is really breaking out over the last two weeks and I am loving it!

Random Fact To Remind You that Brandon Aiyuk is Irrelevant

Random Fact to Remind you that The Institute is Irrelevant

Michael Pittman WR#1?

Not only was Pittman #2 in the NFL for Air Yards in Week 8, he is on a scoring binge. From Week 5-8 he has 4 TDs and has emerged as the Colts #1 WR. After Week 8, Pittman is the #14 scoring Fantasy WR in Fantasy.

Fun Fact: Brent Cozart has 5 top 16 WR. You can only start 3 of them buddy.

Mr. Consistency

I know that Overbay was moaning about Jalen Hurts low point total in Week 8, but look this guy has been a top 10 QB basically every week regardless of how the Eagles play, regardless of how well he plays, regardless of how the other team plays. He has been the most insulated QB in the league so far, so while it was definitely painful in Week 8, he leads the league in most top 10 weeks.

Dad, Chill Out

Billy isn't the only team that seems to have moved on from Odell Beckham, Jr. Apparently the Browns have told him to stay at home because his Dad trashed Baker Mayfield on social media for "not throwing to him". I honestly tried to watch the video and I couldn't understand what was going on. It kept auto rotating and changing, it really just made me dizzy. Sort of like trying to follow the VZRI. But the macro point is that even though Beckham is still on the roster, he isn't on the "team". Is Billy following the same strategy?

Before we get to the awards, lets take a look at this week's episode of Gridiron Heights. FYI this one is going to sting Jeff.

Manager of the Weak

VZ, dude you started Daniel Jones. DANIEL JONES. He went to DOOK!

Move of the Week

Aaron was in a difficult spot with no clear call on his starting QB Dak Prescott on his week 8 availability. The Cowboys were in the Sunday night game and his backup QB, Joe Burrow played at 1 PM. Aaron made the tough call early on Sunday to start Joe, risking that Prescott could play and Aaron made the right call. Prescott didn't play, and Burrow had a great game with 24 points. Without taking that risk, Aaron may have been forced to drop a player to pickup Cooper Rush (or even worse VZ could have picked up Rush himself to try and block Aaron). But Aaron prevented all of that by going with Burrow which ended up being the right move and earning Week 8's Move of the Week!

MVP

Jonathan Taylor, Tom Brady, Josh Allen, Eli Mitchell, Darrell Henderson Jr.

I was super skeptical of Darrell Henderson Jr. coming into draft weekend, but he has proved me wrong. He is currently the #7 RB in the league and has scored double digits in all but 1 game he has played in. He has at least 21 points in two out of the last three games and while he hasn't hit 100 rushing yards yet, he has scored 7 TDs and is the #1 back in a high powered Rams Offense. Chris Carson, Julio Jones, Gus Edwards, Allen Robinson, Clyde Edwards Helaire, and Saquon Barkley were all drafted ahead of Henderson and I am pretty sure that any of the owners of those players would make that trade straight up in a heart beat so I think its safe to say that Henderson has had a positive ROI through 8 weeks of the season.

Manager of the Week

Billy has been well documented in this forum about the struggles with injuries (and really Christian McCaffery). But he never gives up and he always fights and he got a HUGE victory in Week 8 vs. Dirty Mike. Austin Ekeler and Josh Allen came up big and Billy is 4-4 and McCaffery is back in practice. We all know what McCaffery can do, can Billy make another run to the playoffs? He is going to need to push the right buttons at WR, but anytime you have the talent he does at QB and RB you are never out of it. Congrats to Billy for winning the Week 8 Manager of the Week!

Until Week 9...

P.S. RUN JONATHAN RUN!

- The Commish