The BEN Fantasy Newsletter

NOTE: Any rankings appearing before names in this edition refer to ESPN power rankings, not my own rankings nor the actual fantasy standings.

Week 1 has just wrapped up, so half of you are undefeated and the other half are winless. Let’s recap what happened:

The matchup of the week unfortunately did not live up to its name, as it wasn’t even close. QB Bo Nix had 2 interceptions and a fumble and still managed to put up 6.8 fantasy points (and a win for the Broncos), but that won’t do it for a QB in this league. With players across the board from Eric’s team putting up bust performances, he scored the LOWEST amount of points across the league this week, and will have to answer to the press before Thursday night. He’s already sending trade offers left and right to immediately improve his team.

Mohit’s team also underperformed, but was at least able to get a consistent scoring effort from everyone on the team, inlcuding a boom from RB James Cook. In this case, it was more than enough for the defending champion to come out of Week 1 undefeated.

Johnny’s team was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Sunday Night Football. QB Josh Allen and RB Derrick Henry combined for almost 68 points, accounting for 45.6% of his overall points. It made RB Kenneth Walker’s horrid 5.4 points and TE Mark Andrews’ 1.5 points look like nothing. WR Courtland Sutton also putting up 18 points out of the FLEX position is also impressive. Overall, he beat Ryan by 64 points, the largest margin among any win this week by far. We’ll see if his team is able to put up some of these numbers next week. He might have to take hard looks at RB Travis Etienne Jr. and TE Kyle Pitts Sr. on his bench and consider starting them.

Ryan avoided speaking to the press by less than 2 points. QB Joe Burrow? Stinker. WR RB Jerome Ford? Stinker. His only spotlight was RB Bijan Robinson putting up 24.4 fantasy points, most of which came in the passing game as opposed to the running game. On the bright side, he probably didn’t have much regret on start/sit decision, considering most of his bench also put up stinkers. For a team with high hopes and one I had high in my power rankings, they’ll have to go back to the drawing board.

The rookie outlasted the vet in the closest game this week. A boom by QB Lamar Jackson where he dropped almost 30 points proved to be the difference here. WR Marvin Harrison Jr. and TE Trey McBride also balled out, dropping 18 and 12 points respectively. But this matchup went down all the way down to the third quarter of Monday Night Football, where WR Justin Jefferson Jr. still only had a few points. But he eventually caught a 15 yard touchdown that ended any hope of an upset.

RB Christian McCaffrey with 23.2 points, WR Emeka Egbuka with 23.6, and K Tyler Loop with 14.1 gave Carson a chance to win this week, but everywhere else across the board failed to make a difference. But at least QB Brock Purdy did what he was expected to do with 17 points. And this was a winnable one too, because his bench included options that would’ve had Carson crusing to a win. RB Breece Hall had 16.5, WR Stefon Diggs had 11.7 (more than both of his starting recievers Nico Collins and Terry McLaurin COMBINED). RB Dylan Sampson had 17.3 points.

Isaac scored the highest amount of points this week among all managers, thanks to double digit performances from every single player except Eagles Defense. This may seem like a surprise to some, but personally I had Isaac as the #2 team in the Comissioner’s Power Ranking. Are these numbers sustainable? I say probably not, but who knows! QB Caleb Williams, who Isaac was questioning the most on BEN Draft Night, dropped 24.2 points! There is nothing not to like about his performance this week.

Unfortunately, that came at the expense of Caden. 121.88 points would have beaten anyone else besides Isaac and Johnny. But Caden probably would’ve liked it if instead of meditating, WR A.J Brown was able to drop more than 1.8 points. This lands Caden as the most unlucky team in the league so far, and the full lucky rankings will be revealed below. This is one of those losses where you just tip your cap and move on.

And how about an upset here! A lower scoring affair, but QB Jayden Daniels and WR Michael Pittman Jr. were able to carry the load, despite WR Xavier Worthy dropping a donut and now being injured. Double digit performances by everyone except K Jake Bates led Luke to a win, which I personally did not see coming.

And on the other side, to get only 4.6 points from your #1 pick, WR Ja’Marr Chase, must be maddening. For reference, Sudais could’ve started WR Deebo Samuel and his 22.6 points would’ve beat Luke. And in a league where kickers just became more valuable, K Chase McLaughlin only drops 5.8 points. Tough luck.

The first week of the Lucky Rankings are here. 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. So, here is Week 1, but just keep in mind we have a long season to go. 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.

Won’t you look at that, the comissioner is #1. Oh well.

We also have to revisit the power rankings. Here’s ESPN’s after week 1:

A ton of movement across the board, but Caden and Carson remain the same. Mohit is the biggest riser up 6 spots! And Sudais is the biggest faller down 4 spots.

And here is the Comissioner’s Power Rankings

Here’s a visual of the ESPN Ranking so far:

As we move on to Week 2, let’s see the matchups:

I was hard-pressed trying to figure out what the matchup of the week would be, but a bout between #4 Johnny (1-0) vs. #5 Sudais (0-1) (according to ESPN rankings) seems like a fair choice. Hopefully Ja’Marr Chase will bounce back, as on paper Sudais does have a strong lineup. On the other side, does Johnny still have some magic from last week? Will he continue his high output?

The other matchups include:

#2 Mohit (1-0) vs. #9 Caden (0-1)#1 Patrick (1-0) vs. #8 Ryan (0-1)#4 Luke (1-0) vs. #7 Eric (0-1)#10 Carson (0-1) vs. #3 Isaac (1-0)

Make sure you submit a question for Eric to answer in his Press Conference! You can send it directly in the fantasy group chat.

If you haven’t read last weeks edition here it is:

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.