The BEN Fantasy Football Newsletter - Postseason Edition #2

Round 1 of the playoffs has concluded, so let’s see what happened.

Isaac pulls off the narrow victory to advance to the next round!! Puka Nacua had the team’s best performance, scoring 27.9 points! George Kittle was also able to take advantage of a Titans matchup and scored 22.8 points. Jaxson Dart continues to impress in his rookie campaign with 22.14 points. Even Zay Flowers had a great game with 15.8! And Ka’imi Fairbairn the kicker had an amazing 17 points. That right there might be Johnny’s biggest regret. Jonathan Taylor, the team’s leader, only had 13.1 points, but it was a well needed performance to push Isaac over the finish line. The only blemishes on his team were Quinshon Judkins only dropping 4.7 points despite being projected 16.6, and the 49ers Defense/ST dropping a donut against…the Titans? That could have been disasterous if Isaac didn’t win this week. But alas, here we are.

In what has been a good season for Carson has ended in a first-round exit in heart-breaking fashion. In hindsight, he should’ve considered another defense instead of starting the Browns Defense/ST vs the Bears of all teams. They only scored 1 point and were only projected for 4.1. Omarion Hampton only scored 7.5 points, currently in a timeshare with Kimani Vidal until he gets fully healthy. Christian McCaffrey had 15.7 points, which isn’t bad. But as arguably the best player in Fantasy Football, he was projected for 26.7 points. Remarkably, 15.7 points is his second lowest point total, scoring only 9.8 points in Week 8. But Carson probably would’ve liked more from his #1 option. Brock Bowers only had 8.8 despite being projected for 13. Nico Collins tried his best with 23.5 points, and CeeDee Lamb complemented that performance with 17.1 points of his own. Brock Purdy played excellent with 26.2 points. And Terry McLaurin certainly tried his best with 15.9. What makes this brutal is the fact that on his bench, he had DJ Moore with 22.9 points and Blake Corum at 13.1. If he had played DJ at his flex or Blake over Omarion, he would’ve won. But is anyone making that choice, to be fair? That’s just how it goes.

And chaos did indeed ensue. In a big way. 180.7 points is by far the biggest total scored this season. His team was dropping bombs everywhere. Amon-Ra St. Brown went nuclear with 41.4 points. Trey McBride had 37.4. TreVeyon Henderson had 30.1 Tyrone Tracy had 24.7. Javonte Williams had a respectable 15.1 as well! On the other side, Lamar Jackson did disappoint with 14.6. The Bills Defense only had 3 points. And Justin Jefferson only had 4.2 points, which is almost expected at this point with “Nine” as his QB. But you can completely ignore those. In fact, Patrick could have only started the players I started off by mentioning and benched everyone else and still would’ve beat Johnny’s high total of 140.62! It was just a perfect storm for Patrick, and it was dominant. I hope his team saved some of that energy for next week though!

That’s just a brutal way to lose. It started off so great. On Thursday Night Football, the tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. dropped a nuke of his own: 45.6 points. Johnny was favored >60% after that single performance, despite only getting 8.1 points from Bucky Irving on that same night. But it didn’t unfold that way. Josh Allen was great with 24.52. Chris Olave overperformed with 20.5 points. Brandon Aubrey had 15.1. But the star George Pickens only got 6.3 points. Derrick Henry disappointed again with just 10. Tetairoa McMillan was terrible with only 4.5 points. But this simply was just not a winnable week. The perfect storm came and buried Johnny, washing him out of the playoffs. It could be my last time saying this, but when you run into a buzzsaw, you usually don’t make it out alive. And talk about a buzzsaw.

Let’s look at the updated bracket:

It will be the first week of action for Sudais, coming off his bye week. Sudais had a dominant season, and won the Regular Season Crown. Seemed like he was winning every week, and while Luke challenged him near the end of the season for the #1 seed, he scored so many points this season that a tie would never go Luke’s favor. But the biggest story here is that Patrick Mahomes suffered a torn ACL and is out for the rest of the season. That’s a huge blow to his team. So who will Sudais pickup to replace him? He’ll also have to reconsider Travis Kelce starting. And with those looming on his mind, is starting Zach Charbonnet the best idea anymore? For the whole season Sudais did not have to care about the hole in his team, the RB position, because of all the firepower everywhere else. But now things are different. Or can he rely on Jaxon Smith-Njigba, De’Von Achane, and Ja’Marr Chase to do the heavy lifting like they’ve done so many times?

We already talked about how Isaac got here, so lets focus on this week. Unlike Sudais, Isaac’s start/sit decisions are more straight foward: leave everyone starting. Although he may want to change up the Defense/ST with Baltimore facing New England, as good as they are. But maybe the biggest question on his mind is Jonathan Taylor. Obviously you don’t bench him, but his optics are nerve wracking. He has cooled down the last three weeks, mostly in part to the Colts also self-imploding after Daniel Jones getting injured and out for the rest of the season. With Philip Rivers hopping off the couch to play QB, they lacked a passing game, and it affected Taylor. Can he take advantage of a depleted 49ers defensive line despite the circumstances? Can George Kittle and Puka Nacua deliver huge performances again?

We are in for an exciting matchup!

Luke is also seeing his first action of the playoffs after his bye. His team is locked-and-loaded with firepower. Dak Prescott continues to shine. Jahmyr Gibbs picked a good week to lay an egg for Luke, and he’s primed for a big day. Travis Etienne Jr. looked monsturous last week, and with Bhayshul Tuten being out with an injury, Etienne is just going to become more of a workhorse. Jordan Addison is the Vikings WR that is gaining rapport with “Nine.” With other guys like Michael Pittman Jr. and Jake Ferguson, who both have some looming concern but are capable of big hits, Luke looks to take himself one step closer to a title.

Fantasy managers generally don’t like when their teams go insane one week, because it usually sets you up to be disappointed the very next week. It would be a bad time for that to happen for Patrick in the playoffs. But the star power is there for this to probably not be the case! More of his players have favorable matchups compared to Luke’s, so will that end up being the case?

This matchup is closer than we think!

Every playoff team has earned the ability to send in one punishment they would like to see Ryan do, which will be added to the Wheel will be spun at the Super Bowl Party that decides which punishment Ryan has to perform! You can start sending them in to me, but they need to be reasonable. For guidance, we discussed that punishments that are not permanent (e.g. a tattoo), will not leave a digital footprint (e.g. something that will cost them their future job), and are not overly embarassing. Further criteria may be added as necessary. As comissioner, the punishment that you submit will be reviewed by me and determined if it is suitable to put on the wheel. You have a lot of time to submit them, but I’d ask that you’d do it sooner rather than later, that way I have time to check them and reach back out in case I need you to send another one that’s more suitable.

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.