- Patrick Mahomes KC, 140 Points.
- Showtime Showtime, Showtime, Showtime. The worst thing about Patrick Mahomes is that he plays for the Chiefs and lets Andy Reid make fun of his voice. The second worst thing about Mahomes is that if you watch the games the announcers will not stop saying that his nickname is Showtime, and that Showtime does this and Showtime does that. We get it, he's good. The numbers reflect that as well.
- Matt Ryan ATL, 124 Points.
- Maybe I was wrong about Matt? Doubt it, but there's a probability. He's number two four weeks in, but number 29 in my heart. The defense for Atlanta looks really bad and that works out quite well for QBs. Also I guess having a second option other than Ridley is good, and Jones seems like an elite second option. I wonder how much will change if Freeman looks really good coming back.
- Ryan Fitzpatrick TB, Jared Goff LAR, 120 points.
- Well, the Fitzmagic is over it appears. He had a good quote regarding his season though, stating that he would either be MVP or benched and was going to be happy with it either way. Well maybe it wasn't the best version of this season for him, but you bet your ass he had fun.
- Goff showed that it doesn't really matter what you do against LAR they are going to score. Will it be Kupp? Will it be Woods? Will it be Cooks? Will it be Gurley? The answer to all of those is yes. That offense is looking impeccable right now and while Goff has not done a ton to prove that he's "great" he has done enough to show that he can use the ridiculous level of weapons he has on his team.
- Drew Brees NO, Kirk Cousins MIN, Philip Rivers LAC, 111 points.
- Defense is bad, but what happens to Brees when Kamara just gets to run in and score every single TD? Brees only scores 8 and loses you your fantasy week. Ingram is coming back and while he may be less effective after a PED ban, he might also score some TDs and that makes it look somewhat bad.
- Kirk Cousins had an awful week against BUF, but then went and looked amazing against the LAR. Who knows? The dude has skills and weapons but needs to show that he won't randomly drop AWFUL games against bad teams.
- Rivers is abusing that TD magnet he has named Melvin Gordon. Do you want to give a running back a running touchdown, or do you want to throw a short pass that accomplishes exactly the same but gets Rivers stats as well as Gordon? Well, we have seen exactly what happens and Rivers likes stats like he likes changing diapers. A lot.
RB:
- Alvin Kamara NO, 132 points.
- Any CJ Spiller comps I had ever made were wrong, and I'll admit that already. Kamara has looked well, and has made a point to prove that rushing does still matter! He's on pace for over 1000 yards rushing and 1000 yards receiving and seems very exciting to watch and more exciting to plug into your RB slot. Ingram could eat into some of the rushing and maybe receiving but how much does he have to do to actually take the ball out of Kamara's hands?
- Todd Gurley II LAR, 103 points.
- Pretty good yard totals this week, only has one week above 100 yards rushing but he is getting TDs every single week. He's also a part of that LAR offense that teams genuinely seem unable to stop. They want to take away Gurley? Okay, the WRs will kill you. I think that makes Gurley pretty safe.
- Melvin Gordon LAC, 102 points.
- Sometimes fantasy imitates reality, and in this case it does. Gordon is the second rated Los Angeles running back, just like the Chargers are the second-rate Los Angeles team. Much like I talked about with Rivers above, Gordon is a beneficiary of being an end zone magnet and having a QB that wants to toss short side-armed throws to a RB, because throwing it to a WR can sometimes be kind of hard. Melvin has managed to score every week except the first, and he is apparently a premiere receiver in the league.
- Saquon Barkley NYG, 87 points.
- So pretty big drop from Gordon to Barkley, 15 points is a fine game. Barkley is probably at the moment my least favorite RB in the league because of what he has done to that Giants offense. Let's run and give crappy passes to the rookie to prove that he was worth the 2 overall pick! Regardless of how I feel though, Barkley has scored over 20 points in each game and has a TD in 3 out of 4. The problem with Barkley is that his rushing totals look really bad, and the Giants are going to have to change something up if they actually want to win games.
- Ezekiel Elliott DAL, 81 points.
- After failing to score more than 20 in any of the prior 3 games Elliott has begun to eat again dropping 33 against the Lions. Elliott has been a good pick thus far and if he can start some momentum after this game then maybe Elliott can blow up and have a hell of a season.
WR:
- Michael Thomas NO, Adam Thielen MIN, 98 points.
- Michael Thomas is looking a bit down after his hot start, and I don't think that it is a coincidence that Kamara scores 3 TDs and has such a monster game at the same time. This is the hard part of fantasy knowing how to feel when your stud is in a great offense and then someone else shows up and scores all the points.
- Thielen is kinda looking like the real second coming of Wes Welker, and that's not just because he is white. It's also because he manages to get a ton of receptions and finds the open spot in the field consistently. He needs to be careful about how much he yells at refs for making him get looked at for a concussion. That's certainly not going to help him get any flags thrown for pass interference. Also, this guy was an undrafted WR.
- Mike Evans TB, 85 points.
- It's probably not any huge surprise that he had his worse game against the Bears, and it's probably also not a huge surprise that he has his worst game when Fitzpatrick got benched. He still had a good game though! He will probably drop out of the top 5 because of his bye week coming up, but really we gotta see how he looks with Winston taking back over.
- DeAndre Hopkins HOU, 84 points.
- No surprises, Hopkins still catches almost everything thrown his way. He still is doing incredibly well considering that Fuller has shown up across from him too. I imagine nothing will change as we go forward, as long as Watson and he stays healthy it will be fine.
- Cooper Kupp LAR, 83 points.
- Oh Kupp, putting together standard weeks the first 3 game. Then comes game 4, the game where I play my dad and LAR plays on Thursday, and Kupp decides "let's go score 37 points." Who is this guy? I like him as a receiver a lot, but that game came out of nowhere. Being a part of the LAR offense pays dividends.
TE:
- Jared Cook OAK, 74 points.
- Well I had the idea that it was the year of the Cook, and this seems to be the only true part of it. I'm going to not-so-humble brag right now and just let you guys know I was the last person to draft a starting TE and boy has it worked out. Cook has been ridiculous and actually looks like the WR2 on the Raiders.
- Travis Kelce KC, 69 points.
- Nice. Kelce is benefitting from Mahomes but Mahomes is also benefitting from Kelce. He looked like he was going to have an awful week until the final two quarters of the Monday Night game and then suddenly he had a great game! Kelce can make points in a big way and very quickly, as much as I dislike Kelce he is a force in the TE slot.
- Zach Ertz PHI, 62 points.
- With Jeffery back there was rumbling that Ertz might see a bit of a decline, and that showed to be untrue. Ertz is still getting thrown to by Wentz and he will make good use of that. He's been as solid as he can be.
- George Kittle SF, 56 points.
- I just absolutely enjoyed how much Kittle slowed down at the end of that huge TD he had. He looked like he was going to fall down on his own if the end zone didn't magically appear at the end. Beathard appears completely willing to use Kittle and he might be one of the few pieces of that offense that is safe even though Jimmy G is out.
- Eric Ebron IND, 49 points.
- The secondary TE for the Colts is a top 5 TE on the season so far. Ebron might be good, but man does the TE position just look so poor. So so poor.
Head-to-Head Matchups
Yuriy Yedinak (The Chorne Zhopas) versus Andrew Gomez (1 'Tree Hills)
I won't tell you what Yuriy's name means, but rest assured he is insulting you. In a game where Yuriy's team looked mortal and dropped the second worst score of the week, Andrew couldn't get it done and dropped the lowest score of the week. Just wow! What luck that Yuriy has. Yuriy wins 112 - 104.
Yuriy: Yeah you managed to go 4-0 without Ingram playing. This week however shows you that your players are not unstoppable. Conner didn't look that good, Bell is reportedly coming back to the Steelers and wil not be traded, Miller didn't put up his usual 10 points, and Evans lost that Fitzmagic. I'm sure at 4-0 you aren't sweating, but here comes that gradual decline that happens when you stagnate a bit. Be aware man, be aware.
Andrew: Aside from the Steelers D going negative, the worst part about your team was the complete and total middling performance from every single player. It's not that any of them had bad games (Outside of Cole and Crabtree) it's just that you didn't see any large performances from Hill or Hilton. If Hilton is out, where is the explosiveness going to come from? Rely fully on Hill? Seems risky, might need some boom or bust injected into that lineup.
Alex Gomez (Rivers Football Cream) versus Jacob Yorke (DonCobbs Underdogs)
Alex starts 4-0, another start to a fantasy season that will surely end in a sad sad loss in the playoffs. Jake can't catch a break and goes against Alex with byes holding his team down in a week where he really did not perform poorly. Jake plays two of the top three players in this matchup and still loses 144 - 132.
Alex: Boyd is your highest scoring WR, what a strange way to build a team. Having Gurley and Kelce seems to be nice, and for some reason Rivers keeps on scoring points at a fast pace. You do have a definite hole at RB2 in your squad but aside from that it seems to be working out. I imagine there is some worry about Geronimo's concussion and your teams reliance on number 2 WRs, but with surefire Gurley hanging out on your team you probably have a pretty high floor each week on your score.
Jake: If you had CMC in there and played a defense that didn't get you negative points, you probably would have won. It must be frustrating to have your RBs outside of Gordon underperform regularly. It must also be very frustrating to have Cooper finally show up and then you lose the game by 12 points. 1-3 looks bad, but it ain't over yet.
Daniel Smith (Run n Hyde) versus Orest Yaslinskiy (Mustard Tigers)
Ory's team finally shows up in a big way and brings down Daniel handily. The difference between the two teams can be summed up in two slots, the QB slot was a 34 point swing towards Ory, the WR2 slot was another 31 point swing for Ory and while that is the difference in this game. There wasn't much Daniel could do as this just appeared to be Ory's week and he wins 177 - 115.
Daniel: That Cam Newton bye week hurt pretty bad didn't it? You have two incredibly useful pieces in Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski but it has to be clear to this point that they won't do it for you on their own. There's quite a few holes on your squad, and yeah the QB won't typically put up a goose egg, but if Fitz is out or hurting still that's a big deal when Ted Ginn is your other starter. Might be worth trying to move some pieces to get more value overall in your lineup. Either that or play the waiver wire hard. You still have $200, that's your whole entire budget. You should probably use it because you can't take it with you.
Ory: Well that has to feel good, getting your first win and doing it while scoring the second highest weekly score. Jordan Howard was your biggest question mark and I think that's hilarious because the Bears had a perfect game in which to ice the game with Howard. I hope you're enjoying Enunwa, so far that trade looks good for you. If you believe that Davis is actually capable of doing that every week than suddenly your team looks strong.
Chris Cone (Fresno Facecleaters) versus Matt Burke (The Autobots)
Signs of life! From both teams! This was a matchup I liked to watch, and both teams looked good and competent. It comes down to a few huge blowup games and Jared Goff made the blowup the largest. Chris wins this game 169 - 131.
Chris: How about that QB and WR strength? Your RBs scored alright too, but look incredibly shaky once Freeman comes back. Clearly your WRs won't blow up at the same time every single week, but take a look and realize that the potential is absolutely there. You have $200 left on your waiver budget for the year too which means, maybe you should make a bid and get the guy you want. You're in charge of course, but it might be a good idea.
Matt: Check it out, when your WRs actually play and Kareem Hunt shows up like a first round pick your team can score some points. I will say sorry because while Dalvin Cook didn't do better, having Drake and Howard in your lineup sunk your ship a bit. One of the other RBs would have made it respectable and if Jordan Reed wasn't on bye you really might have won. I like your team going forward especially if Ridley is the truth. Keep on it, you're making your yearly run after starting winless.
Valeriy Shishkin (Greenbowl Packers) versus Chris Pender (Dog Don't Mind)
By far the highest scoring matchup of the week, it still ended in a blowout loss for Val. But man, how do you go against Kamara dropping 40 points and James White dropping 30? That's a dominant RB game, and it makes all the difference. -9 from the Vikings D had to hurt but at least Val never really had a chance, losing 181 - 144.
Val: Watkins gets hurt and might be out for a while, and Fitzpatrick gets benched potentially hurting Jackson's value. Not a great week for your WR 3/4. You're welcome for Jordy Nelson though. Your RBs look like absolute garbage honestly, it could just be Freeman out and Thompson on bye but holy cow having to rely on Henry and Riddick might legitimately be the reason you lost this game. Ertz is a great guy to have in your TE slot and your WRs are showing a lot of competence.
Chris: No slot on your team under 10 points. That's asinine. One player that scores 40, one player that scores 30, and then no bad games by anyone else. Your team looks ridiculous in a good way, but we finally saw Mahomes look like a human, and if someone can figure it out that means everyone can figure it out. My biggest worry for your team right now is Ingram coming back for the Saints and stealing some of the huge upside for Kamara, because if Kamara and Mahomes don't keep blowing up you could see your scores drop. Probably not by a ton, but drop enough to lose some games.
Gary Meyer (Rip Lips) versus Nic Meyer (12 Bar Bruisers)
Well, if this matchup were to happen it would be when I'm trying to enjoy my time and relax. Surprisingly enough I managed to do that still because as I said before Kupp made me realize I was going to lose early in the week. My team still decided to make a strong effort regardless of me trading away my opportunity to win for a guy that scored 2 points. Totally cool.
Gary/Dad: I'm not too mad that you won this, you deserved to win because honestly your team is very good. That Thursday night game was absolutely asinine and a farce against humanity but that's alright, you did well. Zeke is looking strong and Rodgers is still respectable (although almost certainly not what you wanted when you drafted him). That TE slot is probably going to haunt you all season long now that Dissly is on IR, and if Kamara doesn't slow down than Thomas might not be as strong as he had been, but your team clearly has ways to overcome this.
Me: All I really want to say here is that I would have tied with you dad if Fournette had just not played. I would have played Yeldon and I would have won. Jared Cook is also my favorite current Raider right now.
POWER RANKINGS
- Alex Gomez (590 PF). Previously 2.
- Yuriy Yedinak (589 PF). Previously 1.
- Chris Pender (656 PF). Previously 6.
- Nic Meyer (554 PF). Previously 3.
- Gary Meyer (581 PF). Previously 5.
- Valeriy Shishkin (525 PF). Previously 4.
- Chris Cone (501 PF). Previously 7.
- Orest Yaslinskiy (595 PF). Previously 10.
- Daniel Smith (509 PF). Previously 11.
- Jake Yorke (484 PF). Previously 8.
- Andrew Gomez (471 PF). Previously 9.
- Matt Burke (387 PF). Previously 12.
Good Luck Next Week!
