WEEK 9 RANKINGS
Eight weeks are in the books and you can set your watch by how consistent the 2023 Fantasy Season has been. Players are getting hurt (especially QBs) and Ghostbusters can't score Touchdowns. With teams on a bye up again in week 9, it is causing some tough choices for Fantasy Managers. Springfield Flanders has 2 QBs on a bye this week, Jared Goff and Brock Purdy. Should Glenn pickup a QB and drop one of his effective starters? Glenn is 7-2 and one game behind Rocky for the division lead. Additionally, he is 171 points clear of the 5th place team in the Wild Card race. This week he plays the aforementioned Ghostbusters, a team he outscores by 44.11 points on average this year. So... He could probably win if he benched both QBs, let alone 1. And since he is comfortably ahead in points scored, I would roll into Week 9 with the QB2 spot empty.
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Our other League co-leader Stick Rock is in a little tougher spot. Kirk Cousins is done for the season and recent waiver wire pickup Kenny Pickett is probably not going to play due to injury. He'll definitely have to pick up a stop-gap QB this week, but the pickings are slim. Daniel Jones, Will Levis and Zack Wilson are probably the best of what is available, but none of those guys inspires any confidence. Rocky better look to trade for a reliable option at QB if he hopes to fend off the hard charging Springfield Flanders for 1st Place in the division.
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On a separate topic, I think one of the reasons there has been less trade chatter over the years is due to a change ESPN has made to their site design. They use to have a static "Smack Talk" message board on both the League Home Page and within each individual match-up. They got rid of that and replaced it with the "Fantasy Chat" popup in the lower right-hand corner of you screen. It operates the same as the old message board, but it is out of sight if you don't know to look for it and even clunkier to locate if you are using the Fantasy App on your phone. In an effort to simplify the communication, I have added a message board to our KAOS website that you can use access by clicking here.
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Finally, now that we have 8 weeks of stats to work off of, I am now basing the rankings on our playoff standings (more or less). Rankings will be based solely on where you stand based on W/L records and points scored. This week's rankings are as follows:
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#1 - Springfield Flanders
Glenn moves up one spot after a convincing 180-168 win over previous #1 Stick Rock. EVERYBODY in this lineup scores with AJ Brown (33), Travis Etienne (28) and Alvin Kamara (27) leading the way.
#2 - Big Rock 2X
Since Rocky started shooting his mouth off about how dominant his team is, he has now lost Justin Jefferson (4-6 Weeks), James Conner (4-6 Weeks) and Kirk Cousins (out for the year) over the last month. As a reminder, here is my LM Note where I discussed how the team that gets out to the early start rarely finishes at the top. Learn it. Live it. Love it.
# 3 - Wrath of Khan
A disappointing loss this week for Kahn as he went up against a buzzsaw. 159 points will win most weeks, but Mel Kipers BA was able to hang a big number on Jimmy. The loss shrunk his lead in the Patrick division to just one game. Justin Herbert (30), Tyreke Hill (27) and Austin Ekeler (23) led the team in scoring.
#4 Mel Kipers Best Available
A big week this week for MKBA. Not only did they move ahead by 17 points in the points standing, they are now also just one game behind the top spot in the Patrick Division. CeeDee Lamb (41) finally had a breakout game, while Sam Howell (38) continues to impress. Jaylen Waddle (25) also found the end zone to help win the game. Pete will need some consistency out of his WRs if he hopes to secure a playoff spot.
#5 - Milford Football Team
152 Points this week was enough to beat his dad (for the 2nd time this season) but he did lose some ground in the points standing. Josh Allen (33), CMC (30) and Geno Smith (18) led a balanced attack in this one as CJ keeps his team in decent playoff position. RB and WR depth could be a concern going forward, but as long as Josh Allen and CMC crank out 30 point efforts they should be a tough out.
#6 Peeping Tomlins
Impressive: Jared is 5-3 with a team that has battled injuries all season long.
Not so Impressive: 40% of his wins have come against the Ghostbusters.
George Kittle (24), Russell Wilson (23 in a nice comeback season) and Jordan Addison (21) were the high scorers in this one.
#7 Black Ghostbusters
They didn't score TDs again this week. Only Waiver Wire pickup Dalton Kincaid managed to find the end zone bringing the season total to 10 TDs (excluding QB). Let me say that a different way. we have played 8 games. We start 2 RBs, 2 WR's 1 TE and 1 Flex each week. That is 48 games played and they have combined for 10 total touchdowns on the season. To put that dismal showing in perspective, 2 players have scored more TDs than my entire team: CMC (13) and Rasheem Mostert (12).
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Needless to say, GHOSTBUSTERS ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS! Nobody on my roster is untouchable, but you are going to have to pay. I will trade any 2 keepers on my roster for one of yours and long as it is an upgrade at one of the positions.
#8 - '69 Olds
And yet here is a team the Ghostbusters can look down on. Ray-Ray couldn't even get to 100 points this week. Jaylen Hurts (35) Brandon Aiyuk (16) and Harrison Butker (11) combined for 63 points this week. The rest of the team put up 35. Yikes!
#9 - Dark Helmet
And then there were none. It took 8 weeks and a favorable matchup, but Dark Helmet finally breaks into the win column. Tua (28), Saquon Barkley (17) and Brandon Jacobs (17) put up enough points to clinch an easy victory over '69 Olds.
#10 Skoal Bandits
They lost again this week, but things are looking up. Jahmyr Gibbs (31) keeps getting better and Alan Pittman (18) has become a reliable target for Gardner Minshew (18). The rest of the roster has been disappointing (Bijan Robinson, Chris Olave, Tee Higgins) but there is still a lot of football left to get things turned around.