Thought it might be good to have a little investigation on where I think teams stand after 10 weeks and we start to head towards the playoffs.
The North
The Wombats lead the entire league with a 9-1 record and have a 2-game lead over the Bandits who are 7-3. Of course, a lot of it is down to great roster construction at each position with Josh Allen at QB (2nd), Barkley at RB (4th), Hill at WR (1st) and Andrews at TE (2nd) but they have benefitted from facing the least points up until week 10, a whole 7 points per game less than the Bandits have faced each week.
The Bandits are doing everything in their power to be the first team to win the trophy a second time, in fact in back-to-back years, by being the highest scoring team in the entire league. The issue might be consistency with half the results over 130 points but 3 weeks of scores below 102 have hurt.
The Leopards are 3 games back in the division but as it stands, they and the Bandits are taking the two playoff spots reserved for next best records after division winners. They are tied at 6-4 with the Otters and the Sandslashers but have the PF edge still but a win this week instead of a loss would have made things a little more comfortable.
The Spartans are suffering this season (not the only former champ to say this) with only 2 players going over 100 points (Jimmy G and Walker) and not that much of this can be blamed on injuries. Yes Watson will probably return and be a top QB again but JK Dobbins has only had 169 carries in his entire NFL career so far and Michael Thomas has 46 receptions since 2019. A rebuild is needed and having the 2nd overall pick in the rookie draft (as it stands) will be a good start.
The Midlands
The Fireflies are the 4th highest scoring team in the league, and it has gotten to the point that I get confused between them and the Cobras being the team that Hamza tore apart (sorry Jason, it has to be done each week now). Savvy drafting has brought in the best players, Kyler Murray, Josh Jacobs, Dameon Pierce, Rhamondre Stevenson, Jalen Waddle is a core for many years to come and looking ahead to this season the following games are very winnable, Beavers, Eagles, Cobras and then a possible division decider with the Otters.
Shep comes back and the Otters are tied for the division lead. A three-game win streak has them tied at the top but they are not making the playoffs unless they over take the Fireflies or average 5 points per week more than the Sandslashers. Justin Fields being the only decent player on the Bears means plenty of fantasy points and Stefon Diggs is such a great set and forget piece to have but AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert are banged up which could slow down the Otters in the run up to the playoffs.
I sometimes look at my roster and wonder how the hell I got here! 2016-2019 I won the old South; 2019-2021 I won the Midlands so have always made the playoffs but that is absolutely not happening this year and looking at this squad might not happen again for a while. Selling high draft picks every year has aged the roster, the remaining “star” players like Kamara, Deebo and McLaurin have had down seasons and some bad trades have really lowered the ceiling.
Currently holding the number one overall pick in next year’s draft are the Cobras, who if they didn’t have bad luck, would have no luck. Breece Hall, a great draft pick, is having a great season and then goes on IR. DeVonta Smith, a great draft pick, has a solid rookie season and looks to build into the Eagles number 1 WR role in 2022, but then AJ Brown turns up and takes it. Elijiah Mitchell looks like the next breakout star for the niners backfield but gets injured. Comes back and finds CMC sharing his locker. Shame this isn’t a Superflex league as Brissett, Burrow and Lawrence are all top 20 QBs. A line up containing Burrow – Hall – Mitchell – Smith – Chark – Burks – Everett shouldn’t have the worst record in a league.
The South
The division that has produced the least winners…. (That one goes out to my Northern and Midlanders!).
Lamar Jackson, Austin Ekeler, Derrick Henry, Justin Jefferson, Amon-Ra St. Brown, TJ Hockenson? Sounds like a twitter fantasy football analyst’s preseason recommendation for “players to trade for to dominate your league” but this is the core that has made the most consistent team in the league and division toppers in the South, the Pythons. Solid pieces around them include Lazard, Kmet, Harris, Goff allows this continuity each week despite the byes that drive occasional weeks down and they currently have a 1 game lead over the Sandslashers and 2 games over the Seahawks. They are the 3 seed as it stands but could easily move up or down.
The Sandslashers were on a hot streak and the difference between them being the 6th seed and the 3rd seed in the playoffs was the week 5 loss to the Pythons. This week’s close loss has resulted in them falling a game behind the Pythons, but they are currently the team claiming the HPS place in the playoffs. The chips seem to be moving all in for this season with the trade for Jalen Hurts and a couple of other pieces might been coming good for the push, Watson on the taxi squad might be the Packers new main guy, Kadarius Toney might not be the bust he looked, and CMC has moved to an offense that might use him creatively.
I wouldn’t panic if I were the Seahawks. This looks like a down year as the roster has the players, but they just haven’t blown the doors off yet. Herbert is being abused by the Chargers and Wilson is clearly a bad fit for Hackett whilst Swift and Taylor should be top 20 RBs if not even higher, once again I believe down to bad coaching. Chase gets injured, Cooper is ok but waiting for Watson, Gallup should be stepping up in Dallas and Waller is another coaching victim. Having three first round picks in 2023 and this roster feels like cheating.
Being 10th in scoring will make wins hard to come by but facing the most points on average each week makes it almost impossible! The roster is solid, but no one has popped off yet with only Dalvin Cook and Taysom Hill being in the top ten of their positions (I mean TE for Hill). Pitts has had a slow down, so too most of the Beavers wide receivers but is also a roster than can rebuild and be a contender next year.
The Buzzsaw
The Bandits thought that they need to be at their best to either catch up with the division leading Wombats or keep ahead of the non-division winning teams by record or by points scored. Winning the buzzsaw does all these jobs in one go and it was impressively done with just a 75.8% efficiency score (that’s a little distorted due to CeeDee’s big game) but it also felt a little unnecessary when it was up against the Cobras.
Although Mahomes led the team in scoring, Jeff Wilson might be a new RB1 for the Bandits and the Dolphins and his league history is amazing. Picked up and dropped by the Otters, picked up and dropped by the Packers, picked up and dropped by the Fireflies and then picked up in 2020 by the Bandits who added him to IR that year and the next!
Andover Sandslashers 🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies 🏆🏆
Lurgan Leopards 🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits 🏆🏆🏆
Wigan Wombats 🏆
Highest Point Scorer
Justin Fields did not like the doubters thinking he was a bust for the Bears! Since the Otters put him into their starting line up his is the highest scoring QB, almost 40 points of Mahomes in 2nd place! Last week’s 42.7-point week was followed up with a 39.4-point game against the worst defense in the league, the Lions, with 2 passing TDs and 2 rushing TDs. Next week he faces the 25th ranked Falcons….
Coventry Eagles 🏆
Cymru Cobras 🏆🏆
Derby Otters 🏆
Lurgan Leopards 🏆
Oxford Pythons 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Oxford Seahawks 🏆
Unluckiest Loser
Scott could feel like this might be the time to make the push, win the South and see what happens in the playoffs, so made the move to acquire Jalen Hurts for a first-round pick and his week 10 score would have beaten all of his Southern rivals, including the division leading Pythons. His 4th highest score of the week could have taken him to joint top (2nd still on PF) but he faced the Wigan Wombats who scored 5.5 points more than them for the 2nd highest score of the week. If that was me, I would have been swearing around the house Tuesday morning after watching the Eagles highlights and seeing Hurts lose points through little fault of his own. I mean I was swearing around the house after watching the highlights, but I imagine Dermy and I had Scott with us that day.
Andover Sandslashers 🏆
Chippenham Beavers 🏆
Coventry Eagles 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies 🏆
Gateshead Spartans 🏆
Lurgan Leopards 🏆
Oxford Pythons 🏆🏆🏆
Oxford Seahawks 🏆
Worst Decision
Well, my go-to for this award, Renfrow, was taken out of the equation, so I had to search through the weekly report a little more thoroughly than usual.
I was looking at Michael for starting CEH when he has been clearly trending down since the Buccs game in favour of Pacheco, but I looked the bench and byes/injuries didn’t leave much option.
How in the world did Kirk Cousins only get 15.5 points for the best game of the year? Aah 2 interceptions cancelled out his 1TD, but I wasn’t expecting him to do well against an outstanding Bills defense anyway and I would have probably started Carr over him against what looked like a Colts car crash. I would have been slightly right but not enough to get the win.
Mack Hollins over Adam Thielen? Maybe my Eagles bias is kicking in here btu MFL’s photo of him still has him in an Eagles uniform as well, so maybe I’m not the only one. I can see the Beavers seeing it as a high risk / high reward play vs the safer floor of Thielen though.
Andy Dalton is trash and Jimmy G is Mr Reliable. I would have thought that Chris would favour the ex-Patriot, but he didn’t and it cost him 8 points.
None of them were game-changing apart from if the Leopards had started Tannehill over Cousins so Dermy gets it by proxy.
Andover Sandslashers 🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles 🏆🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies 🏆
Gateshead Spartans 🏆
Lurgan Leopards 🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons 🏆
Closest Matchup
As mentioned in the worst decision award, the difference between Cousins and Tannehill was enough to cost the Leopards a week 10 win. Just 2.6 points was the margin and the Fireflies even flexed with having two players starting put up zero points, both Chiefs players. Both sides went with the unconventional 2 TE line up, but the closest match was probably the most disappointing.
The Wombats relentless run continued but only by 5.5 points but a win is a win is a win….
Cymru Cobras 🏆
Derby Otters 🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies 🏆🏆
Gateshead Spartans 🏆
Oxford Pythons 🏆
Oxford Seahawks 🏆
Wigan Wombats 🏆🏆
Most Impactful Injury
Week 7
Oh Rams, you sold your souls for a ring and now this season is the price. The bright spot, Cooper Kupp has been flirting with injury and now is on IR with and ankle injury and by the time he is eligible to return, should he or the Rams risk it? The Leopards will be saying yes as 4 weeks from now will be playoff clinching time!
Zach Ertz also looks done for the year and will likely had fuel to the flames about using artificial turf, he will also be missed by the Leopards as he was their highest scoring TE almost doubling next best Noah Fant. Dermy has his possible replacement, Tre McBride, already on roster and Dulcich and Fant show offer low floors.
Khalil Herbert was the Seahawks leading rusher this season, but his year is over and who would have thought that relying on Swift and Taylor instead of him would be a downgrade!!!
I thought Jerry Juedy was don’t for the year but it looks like he will miss a week or two at most now, but the Wombats have Gabe Davis, Tee Higgins, Tyreek, Moore and Sutton who all probably should start ahead of him anyway.
Dermy has the double whammy!
Andover Sandslashers 🏆🏆
Cymru Cobras 🏆🏆
Derby Otters 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies 🏆
Lurgan Leopards 🏆
Gateshead Spartans 🏆
Wigan Wombats 🏆🏆
Roll of Honour
Oxford Pythons 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Andover Sandslashers 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Lurgan Leopards 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Cymru Cobras 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Wigan Wombats 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Derby Otters 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Gateshead Spartans 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Oxford Seahawks 🏆🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits 🏆🏆🏆
Chippenham Beavers 🏆