The BEN Fantasy Football Newsletter

NOTE: Any rankings appearing before names in this edition refer to ESPN power rankings, not my own rankings nor the actual fantasy standings. Additionally, last week’s ranking will be used to recap the below matchups, and the new rankings will be used near the bottom where the Power Rankings and the preview for this week’s matchups are.

Week 6 has passed, so let’s recap what happened.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was more than enough for Mohit to get back into the win column, taking down Carson who won 3 straight weeks before this matchup! It was led by the heroics of Brian Thomas Jr. and Ladd McConkey, two wide receivers that were highly scrutinized earlier in the season for there lack of production. They each got 23 points. Ladd benefitted from the absence of Quentin Johnston, but Brian Thomas Jr., coming off a 12 point performance, boomed for 23 (and would’ve had even more if his 56-yd TD wasn’t called back due to Travis Hunter being offsides). Ashton Jeanty continues to be stable with 16.6 points, though some would argue it should’ve been more when facing a Titans defensive line. Everyone on the the team scored double digits except Wil Lutz, who was only .6 points away from doing so, and Keenan Allen, who was the only disappointment on this team with 6.7 points. James Cook III only had 8.7 points, but the matchup was already wrapped up before he played Monday night, so he wasn’t needed. Previously losing three straight, Mohit was desparate for a win and got a big one!

Carson was riding the highs of a 3 game winning streak, but it came crashing down this week with a bad loss. It started off great with Dallas Goedert, who was on Mohit’s team just last week before dropping him, scoring a whopping 26 points. Christian McCaffrey was CMC with 24.1 points. But those are the only good stories. Let’s start with Breece Hall, who only had 5.9 points. Coming off a putting up 24.6 points, Stefon Diggs only had 5.8 points this week. With Omarion Hampton being put on IR, Carson had the choice of starting either one of the backups, Kimani Vidal or Hassan Haskins. He went with Hassan, and it came back to bite him in a big way. Hassan only had 3.3 points, while Vidal had a whopping 22.8 points. Talk about a blunder. The Browns defense put up a donut, and Jake Bates only had 4.8. But the biggest issue was the fact that Carson only managed to get 1.7 points from Jauan Jennings, who revealed later he was playing through several broken ribs??? This start came in the wake of Carson trading Emeka Egbuka for CeeDee Lamb (who did not suit up this week), and not having Nico Collins or Terry McLaurin available led to his start. After a humbling loss, Carson is looking forward to getting CeeDee Lamb to start soon.

Sudais continues to score at an insane level, this week taking care of business against Ryan. His team put up almost 160 points, higher than any other manager this week! Sudais had three players score 30+ points, Patrick Mahomes, De’Von Achane, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba! Ja’Marr Chase continues to round into form as the #1 pick with 25.1 points. The only duds on the team were the runningback Michael Carter with 8.4 points, but 8.8 points was his projected total, so you really can’t be mad at that I guess? The other was Deebo Samuel only having 5.4 points, and because of it things did get close Monday night between these two managers. Regardless, Sudais gets another win!

With Caden and Eric both winning their matchups, another loss puts Ryan at 1-5, and solely in last place. And this one might be the most heart-wrenching one based on the score. Looking at where we are in the season, I would consider Ryan’s team to be in the danger zone, at risk of losing the league. Scoring 152.76 points would have beaten ANYONE ELSE, but like I have said before: when you run into a buzzsaw, you usually don’t make it out alive. Drake Maye continues to impress with 27.24 points, and Cam Skattebo tore up the field with an amazing 31 points. And Bijan Robinson wants to be included in the RB1 conversation, scoring an all-time 35.8 points on Monday night, that brought Ryan so close to overtaking Sudais despite being down big heading into that night. But it ultimately wasn’t enough to overcome 159.88 points. Chase Brown continues to disappoint with 8.9 points. DeVonta Smith only had 8.9 points. David Njoku had 5.8 points. The Lions Defense only had 1 point. Cameron Dicker wasn’t able to save the team with his 18.3 points. It just keeps getting worse for Ryan. He has made no trades to this point, and with his bench looking questionable, will that change in the future or will he just continue to ride with his team? I wouldn’t go with the latter if I were him.

Johnny took care of busiss versus Luke this week, putting up 140.2 points. It was led by the wide receievers George Pickens and Drake London, who continues his uptick in production. They each scored 31.8 points, accounting for 45.36% of Johnny’s total. It didn’t matter that Kyle Pitts Sr. only scored 4.8 points, or that both of his runningbacks Kenneth Walker III and Travis Etienne Jr. combined for a measly 14.2 points, because the Broncos defense nearly matched both of those totals with 17 points of their own. Johnny now shares the best record in the league with 3 other teams.

Despite another spectacular performance by Rico Dowdle with 33.9 points, this week it wasn’t enough to beat Johnny. You can blame the following for that: Jahmyr Gibbs with 7.5 points, Jacory Croskey-Merritt (otherwise known as Bill) with 5.8 points, Michael Pittman Jr. with only 4 points, Tyler Loop had 3.7, and the Colts defense against the Cardinals only managed to score 1 point. It’s not the worst loss this week. Luke still is .500 and looks to improve next week.

This was definitely…a matchup of all time. But there are no apologies for winning, and Eric desparately needed one. And he got it. A measly 79.94 points was all it took to hand Isaac his second loss in a row, but I’d be remiss to ignore the fact that a lot of help went into this result. The difference proved to be A.J. Brown putting up 14 points and the…Raiders Defense putting up 17 points? Even though it was a win, it must’ve been disappointing to see Matthew Stafford with only 9.34 points, Saquon Barkley with 8.7 points, and J.K Dobbins with only 4 points, depsite being projected for 16! Even Rome Odunze only scored 5.2 points, despite Caleb Williams leading the Bears to a 25-24 win. But it doesn’t matter, because the only thing that does matter is that this counts as a win! And it’s a big win, because it helps separate Eric from being last place, at least for now. And the biggest story for Eric: he gets his prized possession Rashee Rice back next week, after going through a 6-game suspension.

All. Systems. Failure. For Isaac. A week after losing a barn burner to Sudais, Isaac was only able to drop a whopping 65.08 points. Jonathan Taylor had 23.7 points. Caleb Williams had an expected 19.88 points. But thats the extent of good news. Everywhere else was a COMPLETE failure. Quinshon Judkins had 3.6, Mason Taylor only had 1.2 points. The Eagles Defense put up a donut against the Giants. And Cam Little had NEGATIVE 1 point! But the biggest stories are Garrett Wilson and Puka Nacua. Garrett Wilson only had 3.6 points. He appeared to be injured near the end of the game, and reports have confirmed that he will now miss time because of it. Puka Nacua only had 4.8 points before he also was injured mid-game. He appeared in the second half but did not produce any more points. And now he is considered day-to-day, with some reports suggesting he will indeed miss some time. After losing two straight, and this week being exponentially worse than last week, things have suddenly flipped with the injuries. But is it time to panic? Despite the bad news, Isaac is most likely getting back an elite tight end in George Kittle next week. One thing is for sure, he will have to answer to the press this week as a result of his team’s performance.

What a win for Caden, who also separated himself from being in last place. After trading for Emeka Egbuka in exchange for CeeDee Lamb, Emeka only dropped 4.4 points. But besides the Jaguars Defense only dropping 1 point, that was the extent of bad news. Josh Jacobs had a explosion of 32 points. Tyler Warren contributed 17.6 points, and Chris Boswell wsa Chris Boswell with 15.2 points as a kicker. With valuable contributions from Kyren Williams, Justin Herbert, Chris Olave, and Rachaad White, it was more than enough to hand Patrick his second loss of the season. But, Egbuka was injured, so Caden will have to monitor his newly acquired player in the coming week.

Another one of the top dogs go down again. With Justin Jefferson on bye, Patrick had to start Sterling Shepard at WR and it went just about how one might expected it, with Shepard only dropping 7.1 points. Trevor Lawrence had 19.22 points, and Trey McBride had 21.2 points! But Tony Pollard only mustered up 6.7 points. Packers defense only came up with 3 points, despite playing the Cincinnati Bengals. Marvin Harrison Jr. came back to Earth and only dropped 5.2 points. And after a recent tear, Javonte Williams disappointed with 8.4 points. It could’ve been worse for Patrick, though.

A trade happened over the weekend…

Caden gets:

Carson gets:

Commissioner’s Opinion: I’m not sure why this trade happened, especially for Caden. The only problem this solves is Caden now recieves an elite WR he can play right now. But CeeDee was close to returning, and he still needs another capable receiver. On the other hand, Carson suffers a short term loss. But CeeDee will be back eventually, and he is a top wide receiver in the league. I’m leaning towards Carson winning this trade.

Week 6 of the Lucky Rankings are here. As a reminder, this is a ranking that tries to quantify how “lucky” is team over a season. As the season moves on, the more refined and accurate this data becomes. A reminder that if you end up being the most lucky team, you will infact get a trophy for it.

The farther away from 0 you are, the more lucky/unlucky you are. Alternatively, the more greener/redder you are, the more lucky/unlucky you are. 0 is the baseline, meaning your record is exactly what is expected at that point.

After beating Isaac with only 79.94 points, the model has rocketed Eric into #1, previously being #6! And of course, Ryan was the biggest faller after his devastating result, where now he is considered the unluckiest team so far.

Let’s take a look at the ESPN Power rankings after Week 6.

Here is the Commissioner’s Power Rankings:

Pretty similar. Sudais is now the #1 team, a new peak! Here’s a visual of the ESPN Power Rankings so far:

Week 7 is an exciting week, as it is the second annual Rivalry Week. You all will be playing your designated rival, and the prize for beating your rivals is a trophy with your name on it at the Trophy Presentation at the Super Bowl Party. So this week, every matchup is the Matchup of the Week!

Mohit is looking to go back above .500. Sudais is looking to push himself higher in the standings. Will Sudais put up a third straight high-scoring affair? Will Mohit be able to manage a win despite James Cook III on a bye week? Who will make their country proud?

Or should I call it the Toilet Bowl? Well because of the records, this game actually has a lot at stake. On top of being family, Ryan has the opportunity to drag Caden down back to his level. Is his team capable of doing so? Will Caden have Emeka Egbuka available this week? Should he start Baker Mayfield or Justin Herbert?

They’re best friends off the app, but on the ESPN Fantasy App, the only thing they want more than beating each other is the championship. Can Eric rip off a second-straight win against his arch-nemesis? Is Rashee Rice one of the Infinity Stones that Eric finally gets, or will he be a let down? Does Eric even start him? Can Johnny count on Dak Prescott to continue his high output with Josh Allen on a bye week? Who does he start? Who is the friend with more ball knowledge?

It was Carson that brought Patrick into the league. These two previously played in Week 1, where Patrick beat him 119.06 to 111.08. Will Patrick respond to the invitation by giving him a win? Or will he give him another loss and sweep the series? Will Carson have CeeDee Lamb, and if so will he be able to provide an immediate jolt to his team? Who ends up filling that FLEX spot for Carson? Can Carson hand Patrick his second straight loss?

We know these two people are talented musicians that release music on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, TIDAL, and anywhere else that you listen to music that you should definitely listen to. But are we going to let this matchup decide who makes the better music? Maybe. Luke has the perfect opportunity to take advantage of a reeling Isaac team that is down its top two wide receievers, along with two other wide recievers on bye weeks. Can he get the job done and get above .500? Or, despite the odds, can Isaac overcome his team’s injuries and pull through with a win? Can Jakobi Meyers, Kendrick Bourne, and RJ Harvey surprise everone? Can the return of George Kittle be enough to propel Isaac towards a victory?

Enjoy Rivalry Week, because as one conference might say, it just means more.

Make sure you submit a question for Isaac to answer in his Press Conference! Each manager can submit a question, and the more people that send a question, the better. You’re limited to one question. You can send it in the fantasy group chat, or directly to me if you want it to be a surprise question (to be clear, Isaac will know who sent what question, but the questions will not be revealed to him until close to when its time to answer them, giving him little to no time to prepare answers).

If you haven’t read last week’s edition, here it is:

Thank you for being in this league.

By participating in this league, you agree to follow the rules. The commissioner reserves the right to issue rulings regarding league matters so long as they don’t conflict with pre-existing rules or previously proposed, but rejected, amendments. These rulings include, but are not limited to: vetoing trades despite public vote, collusion, tanking, and inactivity.