Week 8, 2022 - First Weekly Notes of the season....let's ride!

Week 8 was a pretty good week for fantasy football. For the most part, if you had a big-name player this week, he paid off. I mentioned in the GroupMe chat on Sunday evening that we appeared poised to post our highest scoring week of the year, but we fell just short with 1105.5 this week (Week 5 had 1115 points). It’s also kind of interesting that Falco was the only team whose score ended in .5 this week. That’s (probably) the fewest since 2014, the first year of the league when we didn’t even allow fractional scoring.

Shall we do recaps? Let's ride!

Jeff Fisher Effect tramples Gravy Train 145-110

It’s easy for me to say, but I feel like $20 on Daniel Jones as a bye week fill-in might have been an overpay. What did work out for GT this week was Christian McCaffrey in what was really his 49ers debut; he’s so good and NOW he also has a good offense to be part of. Look out for CMC going forward. Partly bad luck for GT he had to play Jeff Fisher Effect who got a big week from Tua, to go along with the usual week from Stefon Diggs and Justin Jefferson (Juston Diggerson?) Worth noting, since I mentioned it in the Midseason Notes: JFE got 13 points from the defense this week, which MORE THAN DOUBLED his point output from the position this season.

Death Valley Driver topples Hardcore Sacks, 123-106

DVD got what he needed from his most important players: Dalvin Cook (23.5), Aaron Jones (18) and Tyreek Hill (25). The rest he got was just fine, enough to topple Hardcore Sacks, who is still the top scorer in the league, but now sits at 4-4. Sacks had some kind of shot going into Monday night, but Tee Higgins couldn’t get quite enough done in that game that was a dud in the first half, then really only got better for the Browns. Jalen Hurts was big for him, and he’s hoping Cooper Kupp won’t be out for long with his ankle injury (it’s looking like it’s day-to-day).

Iron Ryan triumphs over Utah Falco, 98-70.5

Here’s some actual footage from his matchup:

It’s worked out this season that neither of these guys seems to have many players who can give you a blowup week. I guess I-Ry has Jaylen Waddle, who put up 27 in this one, and the Jonathan Taylor injury has hurt him (pun intended). It’s a win for I-Ry, but there’s some luck involved, given that he scored the third-fewest points on the week.

Released Dix On Boobies tumbles Dancin Dennis Nedry, 133-118

D’onta Foreman had a huge day for the DDN, scoring a total of 3 TDS and 32 points….wait, hang on….I’m being told Foreman was on the bench for DDN this week. Oops. I’m not sure where DDN would have gotten him into his lineup anyway. He wouldn’t have sat Barkley or Kenneth Walker at RB, and his two WR spots and flex made sense over Foreman. Though perhaps this gives Foreman more of a case going forward. For Boobies (heh), it was the Derrick Henry and AJ Brown show, each going over 35 points.

Pedro Pickles plasters Team Provost, 115-87

I mentioned to a friend outside this league that the same manager had Alvin Kamara (37 points) and Tony Pollard (36.5) on the same team, and he basically said “wow, that guy must have the most points in the league.” Well, not quite. Because the rest of Pedro Pickles’ squad didn’t do much. So he didn’t win a Tidwell, but he won the matchup. The rest of his team didn’t NEED to do anything because Team Provost’s team did even less: he had 3 lineup spots that scored 0 or fewer points (DeVante Parker, Bucs D, Evan McPherson). I don’t care who you have, that’s hard to win with.

Looks like we've got a case of the Benchies

I said I’d look at benches this week.

We scored a total of 379 points from our collective benches this week. How does that compare to other week's this season?

Week 1*	402
Week 2*	377.5
Week 3*	489.5
Week 4*	445
Week 5*	371.5
Week 6	223.5
Week 7	246.5
Week 8	379

(*) = no teams on bye week

 

So it’s not the highest scoring bench week of the year as you can see. BUT…it’s the highest BY FAR of the three weeks we’ve had teams on bye. And it is even higher than a couple of weeks where there were no byes. I’d say that qualifies as a heavy bench week.

Also, FWIW, who asked about this in the chat? Kevin. Who leads the league in bench scoring this year? Kevin.

And for reference, there are no byes in week 12, but 6 teams on bye in week 14. Why? Why do the paste eaters in the NFL office do this?

Overdue Milestone Talk

While I was slacking off not writing notes this year, I missed some milestone wins. Dancin’ Dennis Nedry and Team Provost each earned their 70th league win back in Week 2 of this season. DDN is up to 73 total wins, while Provost is stuck on 70, having now lost 6 straight.

Two more managers are flirting with the 70 win mark: Gravy Train currently sits at 69 (nice) while The Effect has 68. We’ll see who gets there first.

Hardcore Sacks is the all-time wins leader at 78. Here’s the full breakdown through Week 8 of 2022.

DVD, Utah Falco and Boobies (heh) each earned their 60th win this season as well. It’s unlikely I’ll even mention this again until someone hits 100, which won’t be for another few years.

WAAAAY Too Early Playoff Preview

As of this writing, the top 6 teams (remember, we have 6 playoff spots now) all have predicted playoff percentages per ESPN of at least 74 percent. Gravy Train, the current 7-seed, has a PPP of 50. Honestly, he's got the 3rd most points in the league. I find it hard to believe his bad luck will continue if he keeps putting up points like that. Though it's also worth noting that he's 4-4 against the league average this season. He's also got one week where he scored 160 points (next highest total is 129). So his actual total might be a little inflated.

I will say it doesn't look good for the other three non-playoff teams: I-Ry, Boobies (heh) and Team Provost (all at 30% or lower).

Also, as the heading mentions, it's way too early. One of these teams swings a good trade or goes on a run, it's certainly not over.

But these Notes are. Sorry they weren't video this week. Maybe next week.

Week 7, 2022 - Midseason Notes!

 OK, yeah yeah yeah...no Notes until now this year. 

BUT: here's the best Notes ever. (Mostly posting it here so it lives forever.)

Week 17, or The One Where We Crown Another 2x Champ

In the now 8 full years of Smarter Than Phil Simms Fantasy Football, we have THREE 2x champions. Congratulations to Hardcore Sacks!

He was the best team all year, and basically coasted to the title. How best was his team? His 1,717 points scored in the regular season is the most all-time, and actually one of only 3 teams in league history to top the 1700 point mark. He averaged almost 9 points per game more than the second-highest scoring team.

Congrats, Tim. You earned it.

I mean, of course he did: when you draft Cooper Kupp, the WR1 (and it's not close) in the 4th round, and have a keeper like Austin Ekeler (the RB2) in the 6th round, you just need to not screw up your top picks.

But, thanks to injury, he DID blow his top pick! Christian McCaffrey didn't pan out. Like, at all. But the rest of us fell asleep at the wheel on waivers, and just kind of let Hardcore do what he wanted. He also made the league-winning moves of adding Justin Jackson (for no FAAB money) for Week 16, and Rashaad Penny for Week 17 (for much more FAAB, a few weeks before).

I will say, it was an excellent season all-around. Just as much fun a usual, and we'll be prepared for more of the same next year. 

I'm not sure what the status will be for our End of Season: The Gathering. With Omicron rearing its ugly head (and many with pregnant wives and unvaccinated kids) it might be best to hold off a little bit. I'll work to get you all whatever winnings you've earned through Venmo in the next few days, and chat with many of you for the Playoff Pool in the next few weeks.

If you have any ideas for new rules or changes, let me know. Can't wait for next season!!