There were a couple of big happenings this week. First Christian McCaffrey was traded to San Francisco. So far there have been no comments from the CMC manager, and real life Panthers fan, Old Man of Jolly Roger. The league waits with baited breath to the hear Jolly Roger’s thoughts on the trade, both for fantasy and the NFL. The second big happening was the season ending injury to start running back Breece Hall. Sweet Lou was starting to move up the power rankings, and more importantly just moved up into sixth place in the standings. This injury could hurt chances at a playoff run. Luckily for Sweet Lou they also have James Robinson on their squad and he was just traded to the Jets to fill in for Hall. A starting running back is a starting running back after all.
Since we are now half way though the fantasy regular season it is time to start looking at some of top players in various positions, starting with wide receivers. The top five wide receivers to start this season are:
| Player | Points | PPG |
|---|---|---|
| Stefon Diggs | 126.1 | 21.017 |
| Cooper Kupp | 120.8 | 20.122 |
| Tyreek Hill | 119.6 | 17.086 |
| Ja’Marr Chase | 118.20 | 16.886 |
| Justin Jefferson | 107.62 | 17.937 |
Compare this list to the list from last year (through the first 7 weeks)
| Player | Points | PPG |
|---|---|---|
| Cooper Kupp | 162.4 | 23.2 |
| Ja’Marr Chase | 128.7 | 18.386 |
| Tyreek Hill | 124.4 | 17.771 |
| Davante Adams | 118.40 | 16.914 |
| Deebo Samuel | 112 | 18.667 |
Three of the names remain the same. In 2021 Diggs was WR25 (76 points) after 7 weeks and Jefferson was WR16 (91 points). Going the other direction, this year Adams is currently sitting at WR6 (99 points) and Samuel is WR11 (84 points). This is remarkable stability at the position between years. A good WR is worth their weight in gold!
Next week we’ll look at running backs.
Blunder of the week
Team Wizard Of Oz gets shamed this week. Their blunder was bad scheduling. Coming in the third highest score of the week, Wizard Of Oz could have played any other teams and won, but instead they walk away a double looser. What is even worse is that Wizard Of Oz could not have made any changes to actually beat either other team. It must hurt to know you gave it your all and that was not good enough.
Power rankings
A horrible week sees the No-Bell Prizes drop two places to fourth while Joe Dubya and Wizard Of Oz (collectively the Joes) each move up a spot. Jolly Roger still has a strangle hold on the number one position, but with the Chiefs going on bye, week 8 could be tough for the pirates.
| Team | Change |
|---|---|
| Jolly Roger | - |
| Joe Dubya | ▲1 |
| Wizard Of Oz | ▲1 |
| No-Bell Prizes | ▼2 |
| White Hart Bobby Layne | - |
| Jason | ▲2 |
| GS | ▼1 |
| Sweet Lou | ▲1 |
| Dan L | ▼2 |
| Westminster Wildcats | - |
| Adam | - |
| TC | - |
Survivor pool
Some coordination between Joe and Mark meant that they actually picked different teams this week, however neither of them could pick a winner. Both the Pats and the Bucs lost, so we can start over again for week 8. And more people are allowed to enter. It’s fun and easy, so I encourage everyone to give it a try.
| Week | Joe Dubya | No-Bell Prizes |
|---|---|---|
| 7 |
Standings
| Team | Record | Scored |
|---|---|---|
| Jolly Roger | 13-1 | 872.96 |
| Wizard Of Oz | 11-3 | 826.98 |
| Joe Dubya | 11-3 | 805.48 |
| No-Bell Prizes | 8-6 | 836.9 |
| Jason | 8-6 | 631.56 |
| Sweet Lou | 7-7 | 604.48 |
| White Hart Bobby Layne | 6-8 | 713.66 |
| Dan | 5-9 | 651.88 |
| Westminster Wildcats | 5-9 | 584.6 |
| GS | 4-10 | 670.44 |
| Adam | 4-10 | 561.24 |
| TC | 2-12 | 466.08 |
Weekly high scores
- Jolly Roger (152.40)
- Jolly Roger (136.90)
- Dan L (133.40)
- No-Bell Prizes (170.66)
- White Hart Bobby Layne (144.16)
- Wizard Of Oz (117.20)
- Joe Dubya (134.46)
Cover Photo courtesy of All-Pro Reels CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
