FULL LEAGUE RESULTS

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LEAGUE PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 7 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 7 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 7 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

FULL LEAGUE RESULTS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 6 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 6 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 6 DEEP DIVE

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LEAGUE PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 6 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 6 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 6 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

FULL LEAGUE RESULTS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 5 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 5 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 5 DEEP DIVE

One of the most fascinating storylines of this year so far, in my opinion, has been the rebirth of Kirk Cousins with the Raiders, forcing Fernando Mendoza to wait his turn longer than I think any of us anticipated this season.

Vikings Kirk Cousins has been a mainstay in these tiers over the years - predominantly as a representation of mediocrity / good, but not good enough / cookie-cutter / bland.

But in these tiers, we get four Kirks. And fan interference. It’s a big week.

In my best estimation, this is where you fall today:

And if you’re wondering who’s who so you can send them a loving text about how well their team is doing, go look at the previous post.

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It’s about time you know who you’re up against.

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LEAGUE PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 5 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 5 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 5 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

FULL LEAGUE RESULTS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 4 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 4 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 4 DEEP DIVE

We’re so back.

It’s Year 18 in case anyone is counting and Austin has put a two-championship gap between himself and the next closest competitors (myself & Ian) after a 2007-Giants-esque run to his 4th Fauxbardi.

It’s yet another example of why I love this particular league and its managers. Outside of Ruthlessberger’s 12 wins last season, the rest of us were between 9-5 and 5-9. In fact, our winner, Butt Fumble, had 6 wins during the regular season. Last place Turn down for Watt had 5.

I mean, our league already has no undefeated and no winless teams this year. It’s only Week 4, people. The margin between the throne of the league and the throne of your bathroom is razor-thin.

That means two things at once: 1) These first four weeks are immensely important. You have to make sure you are on the positive side of that razor-thin edge. 2) These first four weeks mean absolutely nothing. You can flirt with disaster until Week 14 and still end up with a Fauxbardi if you get a couple of breaks.

You’ve got the rest of this first edition of our 2026 power rankings to decide whether you’re glass half-full or half-empty.

Read ‘em and weep.

2026 WEEK 4 RANKINGS

Plus-side of the Razor’s Edge

1.

Ruthlessberger

Current Record: (3-1, 3rd)

Y! Draft Grade: B+

Y! Projected Record: (9-5)

Manager: Ian Svendsen

Years in League: 10

Best Finish: Champ (2x - 2022, 2023)

“All I do is score, score, score no matter what.” - DJ Khaled playing fantasy football, probably.

Tyler Shough, D’Andre Swift, Chuba Hubbard, Harold Fannin Jr.

Did you just get a cold chill down your spine? Yeah, me too.

Put some respect on their names. Ruthlessberger’s lineup is terrifying like the Pillsbury Dough-boy with a finger in his belly-button.

That feeling of impending doom, coupled with the ghostly echo of Hubbard, hubbard, hhhhhubbarddddd. Shough/ck, shough/ck, sh-*cough, cough*-shoughhhhh/ckkkkkkk…. Shivers.

Look, it might sound like I’m joking, but I’m just glad I don’t have to face Ruthlessberger until Week 10. More than a couple of you already know what it’s like for this gang to hang 130+ on your head. Until you’ve demonstrated your “stars” can do this consistently, Ruthlessberger is going to be mocking you from the #1 spot in our rankings.

2.

Pewter Pirates

Current Record: (3-1, 2nd [Division 1 leader])

Y! Draft Grade: B+

Y! Projected Record: (10-4)

Manager: Sy Gallimore

Years in League: 18

Best Finish: Champ (2x – 2010, 2020)

Last week, as I mentally thought about how I would power-rank my own team, I wholly planned to label my team as predictable, consistent and boring. The first three weeks were all unremarkable 105-110-point performances. And honestly, I kind of liked that about my team. It just wasn’t going to be great for writing rankings. I was going to have to draw some obscure comparison to a boring-yet-successful team from eras past to drum up at least a shred of interest.

But then, FLASH! Everything is white - so bright that your eyes feel glued shut in a protective instinct so as not to blind yourself. Just as you start to flutter your eyelids, BOOM! A gust of wind like a hurricane blasts past you as you cover your ears. You look up. The sky turns orange. What is happening? Has Oppenheimer finally tested his newest creation?

No, wait, it’s… it’s…

PEWTER PIRATES DROPPING 183 POINTS ON STEVIE KICKS.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Note: 183 points marks the highest single game score in 8 years - since Week 6 of 2018 - when Yours Truly scored 190.

3.

Stevie Kicks

Current Record: (3-1, 1st)

Y! Draft Grade: B

Y! Projected Record: (7-7)

Manager: Stevie Collins

Years in League: 3

Best Finish: 7th (2x - 2024, 2025)

Someone might need to knock on wood here, but… there’s something to Jayden Daniels that we need to talk about. Not by his own volition, but I’m learning that drafting Daniels leads to season-saving roster moves.

Last year, Jayden Daniels dealt with a slew of injuries, causing me to pick up Matt Stafford on waivers, who ended up having an MVP season.

Now, after Stevie Kicks experienced a first four games that include the highest overall Points For in the league, you have to think maybe it was a blessing that Jayden Daniels got hurt (again)?

Brock Purdy has quietly been excellent for Stevie Kicks. Really excellent. QB2 overall-kind-of-excellent. Addition through attrition?

And he’s not the only one quietly being excellent - Chris Olave has yet to score less than 15 points in a game this season (WR4 overall), Amon Ra St. Brown has been as advertised (WR3 overall) despite a struggling Lions team, and the Minnesota Vikings defense has been DEF1 overall this season (bolstered by playing against my beloved Suckaneers two weeks ago).

Is it all sustainable? I’m starting to think it is.

Balanced Perfectly on the Razor’s Edge

4.

Jets Jets Jets

Current Record: (2-2, 5th)

Y! Draft Grade: D+

Y! Projected Record: (4-10)

Manager: Tim Cook

Years in League: 18

Best Finish: Champ (1x - 2015)

Two roads diverged in the woods. Jets Jets Jets walked to the point of diversion, climbed the sign, and stood on it in a poised Karate Kid Crane Kick position.

This roster’s superpower? Balance - the new namesake for this grouping of teams within our power rankings. A few injuries to the WR corps (and maybe the tiniest red flag starting to raise with Jalen Hurts) notwithstanding, this team seems to have a high floor week-to-week. It’s the RB room that might have the most notoriety, but this roster has no true heroes - and that’s its biggest strength: Jets Jets Jets isn’t a one-trick pony.

So, yes, a little bit on a razor’s edge with some injuries and underperformers, but like Daniel-san, balancing all the same.

Performance and luck also seem to be balanced. Jets Jets Jets’ Points For? 5th in the league. Points Against? 5th in the league. Standings? 5th in the league.

What’s that spell? 4th in these rankings, of course.

5.

Sweet Carolina

Current Record: (2-2, 4th)

Y! Draft Grade: D+

Y! Projected Record: (7-7)

Manager: Michael Schultz

Years in League: 6

Best Finish: Champ (1x - 2024)

I had this awesome description of Sweet Carolina’s massive scoring outburst this week all written out, but then I outscored him and took the description for myself. Seriously, how often do you score 170+ points and get overshadowed? The answer is never. At least, never in the history of this league. Absolutely ridiculous. The audacity of my team, smh. Sorry, man.

Ok, enough talking about me (unless, of course, you want to re-read my section above ^).

To be fair, it’s hard for me to quite put my finger on Sweet Carolina’s identity. We’ve gotten a strong performance, a meh performance, a bad performance, and an absolute MASSIVE performance.

The consistencies have been Josh Allen and CeeDee Lamb. Outside of that, it’s been a smattering of whatever sticks while waiting for Puka to be healthy and trying to figure out what scrubs can play RB now that Jonathon Brooks and Jadarian Price are on IR (not that those feel like huge losses anyways).

So, this team is finely balanced on that razor’s edge, with two stars and a suspect supporting cast. But geez, the ability to score 170 points has to have you in the top half of the league’s power rankings.

6.

Nick’s Fury

Current Record: (2-2, 6th)

Y! Draft Grade: C+

Y! Projected Record: (8-5-1)

Manager: Nick Gosney

Years in League: 8

Best Finish: Champ (1x - 2019)

Sweet Carolina has a bunch of great receivers but absolutely nobody to play running back.

Sorry, that should’ve been in the section above. Let me restart.

Nick’s Fury has a bunch of great receivers but absolutely nobody to play running back.

Does that make them balanced? I guess the eliteness of the WRs creates balance with the (What’s the right word here? “Travesty” feels too far, but)… underwhelming… duo that are the RBs?

Tides may be changing on that front, though. Nick’s Fury was the waiver winner for Ollie Gordon, who assumes to take the workload in Miami previously assigned to De’Von Achane. Just one more RB might turn Nick’s Fury from middle of the pack to a scary contender.

Also, I don’t know how to explain it, but Nick’s Fury playing two TEs in the same week as a legitimate strategy to win feels kind of like the renaissance / comeback of the full-back position. It feels like a return to real football. And yet, I’m pretty sure that’s never been a real fantasy strategy, so I’m not sure why it feels that way.

Whatever. I like it. Sustained consistency from Kittle and Kincaid (they are either going to score 15 or 2) would be kind of fun to see.

7.

ThrowUpThe X

Current Record: (1-3, 8th)

Y! Draft Grade: D+

Y! Projected Record: (4-10)

Manager: RD Gallant

Years in League: 17

Best Finish: Champ (1x - 2013)

I can’t help but feel some déjà vu as I write about ThrowUpThe X. Have we been through this exact scenario before?

ThrowUpThe X has the 3rd-highest Points For in the league, only to be upstaged by the highest Points Against in the league. In fact, ThrowUpThe X’s Points Against (550 points) is higher than any one team has scored in the league so far this year (524 points).

In case you’re not tracking, that means ThrowUpThe X happens to be on the receiving end of the one-off boom weeks around the league each week. ThrowUpThe X literally played the #1 scorer in Week 1, the #1 scorer in Week 2, and the #1 scorer in Week 3. That’s just colossally bad luck.

It would almost feel better if they weren’t scoring a lot and didn’t have a chance in these games…but that’s not the case here. ThrowUpThe X has been scoring well. I guess that’s balance?

I do think the ship will right itself. ThrowUpThe X’s RB trio creates a very high floor for each week.

Side note: I’m not saying correlation = causation but… interesting that ThrowUpThe X went against everything they believe in and only have 2 Cowboys players on the roster this year. Maybe karma is out to avenge the loss of identity?

Minus-side of the Razor’s Edge

8.

Butt Fumble

Current Record: (1-3, 9th)

Y! Draft Grade: C

Y! Projected Record: (5-9)

Manager: Austin Owen

Years in League: 13

Best Finish: Champ (4x – 2016, 2017, 2021, 2025)

Butt Fumble being ranked at #8 should terrify everyone for their odds at a title this year.

Just like last year, it hasn’t all panned out like it was supposed to… AJ Brown on IR in Week 1, Drake Maye being unplayable until Week 4, CeeDee completely overshadowing George Pickens, the Texans defense underwhelming…

That said, quite a few things are working well… Gibbs, Deebo, having Lamar to stem the tide until getting injured in Week 4.

But, wait, that’s balance! This team should be in the grouping of teams above!

Is that in the cards for the future? Yes, especially if 2025 is any proof of concept. Or Week 3 of this year: we shouldn’t let it be overlooked that Butt Fumble scored 151 points in a 7-point win over ThrowUpThe X in this year’s top Barnstormer of the Year candidate. That’s not nothing. But for now, there are just too many questions about where points are going to come from each week outside of Gibbs to feel good about ranking any higher.

It’s a team that’s still on the dull-side of sharp, but there’s no reason a fully healthy squad here couldn’t make another 2025 run - it’s just about maintaining contention long enough to get a shot.

9.

Turn down for Watt

Current Record: (2-2, 7th)

Week 8 Rank: 9 (+3)

Y! Draft Grade: A+

Y! Projected Record: (12-2)

Manager: Joshuwa Shelton

Years in League: 12

Best Finish: 3rd (2018)

In case you were ever wondering what the equivalent of the Madden Cover Curse was in the fantasy world, look no further than the dreaded A+ draft grade from Yahoo.

Our projected champion has already met his projected loss total for the season, and the future is looking a little dim.

First, it was losing Achane for the year, then Breece Hall for a time, now Ja’Marr Chase, and all the while seeing regression from Tyler Warren and (further) disappointment from Brian Thomas Jr.

There are some things breaking Turn down for Watt’s way, though. Jordan Mason going on IR has opened the door for Aaron Jones Sr. to have a resurgence, and the Pittsburgh offense now has enough life to consider throwing Metcalf in the lineup when needed.

This team will be fine. Just not as sharp as they wanted or expected to be at this point in the season.

10.

Golden Boy

Current Record: (1-3, 10th)

Y! Draft Grade: D-

Y! Projected Record: (3-10-1)

Manager: Kyler Stock

Years in League: 5

Best Finish: 3rd (2023)

Ok, the more I think about this, the less I think Golden Boy should be ranked 10th in these rankings. Yes, they have the lowest Points For in the league, and yes, this RB group has underwhelmed, and yes, it’s not compelling QB play…

But look at the talent here: KWIII has been great. Skattebo has shown flashes. Zay Flowers has been very good when healthy. Jaylen Waddle should be better. Saquon should be better (and healthy at some point??). Kyle Pitts sh- … nah, who am I kidding? Kyle Pitts sucks. #FtheFalcons

It’s probably not consequential enough to actually say it, but you know what is probably GNAWING at Golden Boy as he lies in bed each night?

Check this out:

In Week 1, Golden Boy plays Saquon and Jaylen Waddle. They combine for 9.2 points. Jacory Croskey-Merritt and Christian Watson combine for 42 points on the bench.

In Week 2, Golden Boy says, Ok, I’ll play Christian Watson, but I’m keeping Saquon in this week again. Saquon only has 2 points. TreVeyon Henderson scores 13 on the bench.

Then it’s Week 3, Golden Boy says, Fine, I’ll play TreVeyon, but I’m keeping Saquon on as a flex, so Cam Skattebo will have to go to the bench. And Zay Flowers is healthy again, so I have to decide between keeping Rome Odunze or Christian Watson in the starting lineup. Golden Boy chooses Odunze. Saquon and Zay and Odunze have 27 points combined amongst the three of them. Skattebo and Watson and Doubs have 37 on the bench.

So finally, it’s Week 4, Golden Boy says, Ok then… I’ll put Skattebo and Watson back into the starting lineup, keep Saquon in, and bench Odunze. Skattebo, Watson, and Saquon combine for 15 points. Odunze and Doubs have 33 on the bench.

Brutal.

Again, not a bad team, just not as sharp as it could be.

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LEAGUE PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 4 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 4 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 4 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

FULL LEAGUE RESULTS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 3 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 3 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 3 DEEP DIVE

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LEAGUE PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 3 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 3 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 3 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

FULL LEAGUE RESULTS

RHEA GUN - WEEK 2 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 2 DEEP DIVE

RHEA GUN - WEEK 2 DEEP DIVE

In case you and your league-mates want to make things interesting…

LEAGUE PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA ANALYTICS - WEEK 2 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA ANALYTICS - WEEK 2 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

RHEA ANALYTICS - WEEK 2 PROJECTIONS & BETTING ODDS

Before getting to the week’s results, you need to be aware of two things:

1. Sleeper’s UI for reporting standings and matchups is not screenshot friendly. Sorry.

2. One of our very own, Jayson Rhea, has created some deep-dive analytics on our fantasy weeks - helping you cope with your team’s underperformance. The analysis is complete with Title Odds, which should be fascinating to see adjust over the course of the season. Shout out to Jayson for the awesome format and extra info!

FULL LEAGUE RESULTS

RHEA ANALYTICS - WEEK 1 DEEP DIVE

RHEA ANALYTICS - WEEK 1 DEEP DIVE

RHEA ANALYTICS - WEEK 1 DEEP DIVE

Season 5 brings the most changes yet.

LINEUPS

There were a few large shakeups in our 2026 lineups. Watch the video breakdown to understand how our 36-team league was solidified for the year. And check out my last post so you don’t miss the reinstatement letters that Stevie and Sam submitted to the Office of the Commissioner and the official responses from the League.

NEW THIS YEAR: SLEEPER

I’m a sucker for tried-and-true, never-failed-me-yet products. For the last 17 years, Yahoo Fantasy Football has been one of those products for me.

However, for a few reasons, this year we will be transitioning to the Sleeper platform for our fantasy football season (primarily app-based, but you can use web also - functionality is more limited via web). If you must know, here are the top three reasons for the change:

1. Managing three divisions at once. Managing three tiers of this league is difficult, especially with Yahoo. I have relied on other players to be ghost-commissioners, sharing their log-in info to allow me the ability to gather scores, standings, intel, and use my commissioner tools across the three divisions. Sleeper allows me to be the commissioner of leagues I do not actively participate in, making it a seamless solution.

2. Your engagement. Sleeper has developed a reputation for building league engagement through its chat feature. For having 36 guys, a full-fledged blog/website, and platforms that offer chat features, we have traditionally had significantly less engagement in this league than I anticipated. If Sleeper makes it easier for you to trash-talk, it’s worth a shot in my book.

3. $$$. This year will be the first that a buy-in will be implemented. Each team must pay a $25 buy-in to the Commissioner before the draft. Sleeper offers a tracking system for paid dues, which makes it much easier on me as I hound 35 other managers to pay up.

NEW THIS YEAR: WINNER PAYOUTS

Bragging rights is great, but this year you might be able to earn some cash on top of it. Your $25 buy-in goes into a pot that gets paid out on the following schedule:

The goal behind this change is to increase engagement. Your $25 represents your willingness to put some skin in the game and, hopefully, will give you more motivation to stay on top of your lineups and keep pushing to move up the ranks.

Even if you do not earn a payout, I hope the intentionality that goes into trying to make this a fun, memorable, community-building experience and the dang-Sy-it’s-just-fantasy-football-this-is-way-too-deep analyses along the way justify the investment.

DRAFT

Our randomized-order, 0.5 PPR snake draft will be on August 30 at 7:00 EST.

I’m especially excited about this season.

Best of luck out there in RFL Year 5.

The competition in this league isn’t for everyone.

Stevie Collins & Sam Adams are two of the individuals who find themselves on the outside looking in before the beginning of our 2026 season.

Both Stevie & Sam were offered the opportunity to request reinstatement to the League in the event that there were any spots open once our newcomers were solidified. This year, we had three newcomers join the league. However, due to other manager departures, two spots remained.

Alex Soares & Joey Eugene were not provided the opportunity to request reinstatement based on their egregious line-ups and lack of engagement during the season.

Here are the letters from Stevie & Sam that came to the Office of the Commissioner, and the League’s official responses.

Stevie Collins’ Request for Reinstatement

Office Response to the Collins Letter

Sam Adams’ Request for Reinstatement

Office Response to the Adams Letter

Do you agree with the League’s decisions?

With that, our league lineups are set for 2026 and will be shared shortly.

ALL HAIL BUTT FUMBLE.

Austin Owen’s unprecedented fourth EFL title may have been the most unlikely in its 17-year history. Until the first round of the playoffs, Austin was grasping at anything to avoid landing the John Porta trophy. Now, here we stand three weeks later, honoring him with the Fauxbardi XVII trophy.

And, as fate would have it, it’s also because of Butt Fumble’s (and ThrowUpThe X [R.D. Gallant]’s) late season surge that Turn down for Watt (Joshuwa Shelton) earned the John Porta trophy. It’s not a shameful last-place finish for Josh, though. In fact, it represents the first time in league’s history that the last place team had at least 5 wins. ThrowUpThe X, Sweet Carolina, and Turn down for Watt would all finish with 5 wins, but the former two had the tiebreakers via higher Points For.

Remember when I harped on parity earlier this year? As it turns out, Season 17 was the season of parity. In a season where any team could win and any team could lose on any given week, we saw a 6-win champion and a 5-win last-place team.

I find that fitting.

The final four looked to be an exciting matchup between the league’s most storied managers: Austin (3 titles), Sy (2 titles), Ian (2 titles), and Tim (1 title). In reality, none of the games were close, and the teams finished in that exact order.

Austin saved his best for last, scoring 149 in the final week of the regular season to lock in a playoff spot and avoid the John Porta trophy. Then saw 109-, 145- and 132-point outings in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final, respectively. Austin had only five other games cracking 100 points during the season and hadn’t had a single one since Week 9.

Runner-up, Pewter Pirates (yours truly), led the league in scoring during the regular season, scored 139+ through the first two rounds, and then no-showed in the final, suffering their second-worst outing of the entire year.

#1 seed, Ruthlessberger (Ian Svendsen), used up the entirety of their magic in a round 1 romp over Sweet Carolina (Michael Schultz). Their 180 points was the largest scoring output of the season by any team. In the semifinal, Ruthlessberger misplaced 100 points and scored just 80 in a loss to eventual-champion Butt Fumble. Still, Ruthlessberger was able to fend off Jets Jets Jets (Tim Cook) to take home the bronze in the 3rd place game.

Middle seeds Stevie Kicks (Stevie Collins), Nick’s Fury (Nick Gosney) and Golden Boy (Kyler Stock) all lost in the first round of the playoffs, with each team scoring between 97 and 104 points. Each team would then go on to score significantly more points the following week while duking it out for 5th place. If only those performances had come a week earlier…

And with that…

A LOOK AT YOUR REGULAR SEASON MVPs

Notable:

• Pewter Pirates had a top 5 player in five of six categories in spite of losing 3 of their top 7 draft picks (Malik Nabers, Jayden Daniels & Tucker Kraft) to season ending injuries, largely because three of the five were undrafted waiver wire pickups

• Remember when Ruthlessberger drafted TEs back-to-back in the 3rd and 4th rounds? It might’ve paid off. The second TE of the pair, Trey McBride, led all TEs in scoring by a wide margin - actually outscoring WR #5.

• Stevie Kicks saw something in Drake Maye that none of the rest of us did. Maye was the 14th QB taken (a reminder that there are only 10 starting positions in the league) and ended up as QB #2 over the course of the season.

• ThrowUpThe X only had one category with a top 5 player, but luckily it was QB #1 Josh Allen, who played a large part in ThrowUpThe X avoiding the John Porta trophy late in the season.

HINDSIGHT IS 20/20: DRAFT EDITION

Notable Gems

• All of the Undrafteds. Eight (yes, eight) of the 30 top players listed above were undrafted. That means more than a quarter of the best players in fantasy this year were fair-game-for-anyone pickups on the waiver wire. No wonder there was so much parity this year.

• Non-star QBs. Caleb Williams, Bo Nix and Jared Goff all were significantly better fantasy options this season than Lamar, Burrow, Herbert, Hurts and any other fantasy-darling-QBs not named Josh Allen.

• Crowded-backfield RB2s. Oddly enough, D’Andre Swift, Rico Dowdle, Jaylen Warren, Zach Charbonnet, and RJ Harvey were great RB2 or FLEX options this season in spite of each sharing their backfield with another RB1 or RB2.

• Chris Olave, drafted 81st overall, finished WR #6 overall for Golden Boy - even on a terrible Saints team.

• George Pickens, drafted 49th overall (mostly because of CeeDee Lamb’s injury), finished WR #4 overall for Pewter Pirates.

Notable Wiffs

• Almost all QBs. Injuries decimated the position’s top performers from 2024, with Lamar, Baker, Darnold, Daniels, Burrow finishing outside the top 10 and Hurts landing at just #9.

• Another down year in TE Land. Big names and early draft picks such as Brock Bowers, George Kittle, Mark Andrews finished #8, #11, and #18.

• Defenses. Very few defenses were worth keeping around for more than a week at a time this year. Pre-season favorites, PHI, LAC, BAL, SF finished #7, #14, #19, and #26, respectively.

• ThrowUpThe X’s Cowboys fandom. Historically, R.D. has anywhere from 3-6 current or former Cowboys players on his roster. This year was the perfect year for that strategy, with Dak, Pickens, and Brandon Aubrey all landing in the top 5 at their respective positions. Unfortunately, in a year where R.D. had less Cowboys players than ever on his roster, he chose the worst one to keep: the Dallas defense was #31 on the season - only better than the N.Y. Jets (and not by much).

FINAL PLAYOFF BRACKET

FINAL SIGN OFF

Well, this is it. Both Fauxbardi XVII and the John Porta trophy are on trucks headed to Austin and Josh.

Hopefully, you all enjoyed this wildly unpredictable season as much as I did. Did I want to scrape my face against a brick wall for most of it? Of course. But fantasy football is a drug, and I’d be happy to see us all back next season for our next hit.

A quick note on next season: inflation is real. To keep up with trophy costs, league dues will be $15 next season. In other words, I hope participating in this league is worth the equivalent of that Chipotle-bowl-add-guac-plus-tax you were planning to get next week.

To that end: A special thank you to you all. I appreciate your engagement, setting your lineups, hitting the waivers, and making this the closest season #1 through #10 that we’ve ever had.

Better luck in next year, fellas. Season 18 looms large.

-Commish

Long overdue: a quick rundown of some of the most noteworthy teams and managers, followed by a final view of the playoff brackets.

BEST TEAM NAMES

1. Woody on my Johnson (Alex DiCarolo) - GM of the Jets

2. Jordanian Putters (Jordan Putt) - Jordan’s name

3. Not Racist Redskins (Jordan Williams) - Washington’s name change

4. HingleMcCringleBerry (Joel Wagness) - iconic Key & Peele video

5. Nacua Matata (Ben Musselman) - the circle of life

6. Fourth & Longwood (Stevie Collins) - where Stevie lives

7. Ship Happens (Sy Gallimore) - famous phrase meets Bucs’ secondary logo

8. The Skatteboys (Eli Robinson) - Eli’s favorite team + show

BEST TEAM LOGOS

1. Jordanian Putters (Jordan Putt)

   

2. I’m sorry Miss Jackson (Keuris Fernandez)

   

3. Lisan al-QB (Alex Chang)

   

4. Air Freier (Josh Shelton)

   

5. Fourth & Longwood (Stevie Collins)

MOST POINTS SCORED

1,878 Points (134 ppg)

Jordan Putt (Jordanian Putters) - Finished 5th in Mettle Division

1,633 Points (117 ppg)

Jordan Breyer (Blitz Zone Jordan Breyer) - Finished 5th in Bedrock Division

1,618 Points (116 ppg)

R.D. Gallant (U Digg it? 7-11) - Finished 2nd in Legacy Division

1,567 Points (112 ppg)

Ben Musselman (Nacua Matata) - Finished 1st in Legacy Division

1,548 Points (111 ppg)

Joe Acosta (Not Your Average Joe) - Finished 2nd in Bedrock Division

FINALIZED PLAYOFF BRACKET RESULTS