WEEK 7 - PART 2

6th Pick: HOW’S HOOTERS? KiTTLES? (2-5)

STEALS: We’ll go with Lamone’s 7th round pick – Austin Ekeler. The 66th pick in our draft is RB4 as of press-time, with only Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliot ranking higher. While he hasn’t had a great season rushing (69 carries 248 yards, 3 TDs), he’s effectively played as an RB/WR hybrid and has totaled 49 catches for 488 yards and 4 receiving TDs through 7 games. He’s #1 among all RBs in receiving yards and only 14 players have more yards (all WRs or TEs). Of course, he’s also #1 among all RBs in receptions and only three players in the entire NFL have more receptions (all WRs). While Melvin Gordon’s return will probably crush his value at some point, it’s been a great start for Ekeler.

BUSTS: It’s a close call between Le’Veon Bell and Odell Beckham, but I’m going to go with Odell here. Lamone’s 2nd round pick is WR26 on the season and is averaging just 11.5 points per game. He ranks 40th in the NFL with only 29 catches and ranks 25th in receiving yards. A lot of that yardage total came from an 89 yard TD reception and without that one play, he’d rank closer to 40th in receiving yards. He only has 1 TD on the year and has only caught 53% of his targets. Lamone isn’t even starting him this week and I think that is the only 2nd round player who is not in their team’s starting lineup (excluding byes).

7th Pick: Return of The Mack (4-3)

STEALS: My initial instinct was to go with Zeke Elliot as he’s RB3 despite being the 7th overall pick and 6th RB drafted. Then again he’s a first round pick returning first round value so no dice. Instead I’ll go with Phillip Lindsay who was the 67th overall pick in the draft (7th round). After being the 30th RB taken on draft day, he ranks as RB13 through 7 games. If it weren’t for a poor 5.9 point showing in Week 7 in a fluky TNF game, he’d have a chance to be a top 10 RB. Speaking of flukes - Lindsay is proving that last year was no fluke and he’s on pace for 1,300 total yards and 8 TDs.

BUSTS: I’m not sure I agree with this, but just for fun I’ll make an argument for it – Travis Kelce. Kelce was the consensus #1 TE in fantasy during the preseason and was even being drafted in the 1st round in some 12 man leagues. He went 14 overall in our league and….has been somewhat disappointing. He’s still TE4 in our scoring, but… he’s only TE4 in our scoring. The three TEs who rank higher than him are Hooper (13th round), Darren Waller (undrafted) and Mark Andrews (14th round). That may be more of a cautionary tale that you can wait on TEs, but I’m getting off topic. Kelce will undoubtedly finish in the top 5 of TE scoring, but is he a bust if he doesn’t finish as TE1? (This is 100% just a devil’s advocate question, I don’t think any Kelce owners are actually disappointed with him.)

8th Pick: Make America Gordon Again (0-7)

STEALS: Tieg team was autodrafted and there really aren’t any steals as of now. Once you get past the 4th round the computer just went rogue - kinda like Tieg. Moving on.

BUSTS: I have to say Davante Adams, the 13th pick in our draft. Adams was Tieg’s 2nd autodrafted pick and at the time it didn’t look too bad. He’s Rodgers’ #1 receiver and was coming off back-to-back-to-back years of 10+ TD receptions. He had a career year in 2018 with 111 catches for 1,400 yards and 13TDs. Unfortunately he’s followed that career year up with a let-down. He hasn’t caught a TD pass this year and is WR51 through 7 weeks. He’s also injured and has missed 2 straight games – no word on Week 8. He’ll probably come back and have a decent second half, but for now it’s a bust.  

9th Pick: Daddy’s Little Gurl (5-2)

STEALS: Dak Prescott, 14th round #132 overall. Dak is QB4 on the season with 189.8 fantasy points through 7 weeks (average of 27 per week). He’s thrown for more than 225 yards in every single game and has at least 1 passing or rushing TD in 6 of 7 games. Most importantly, he’s put up 23 or more fantasy points in all but 1 game. He’s got a tough schedule in the second half of the season, but his rushing totals always boost his weekly scores (24-163 and 3 TDs on the year).

BUSTS: There’s not much to work with here, solid draft by Ken. If I have to reach for one I’ll go with Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers was Ken’s 5th round pick and had a brutal start to the season. He scored 15 and 17 points in his first two matchups and was eventually traded to Lamone. The return he got is decent - Lesean McCoy and Allen Robinson – but considering his 5th round pick was off the team after two weeks I’ll call it a bust.  

10th Pick: The Permian Panthers (6-1)

STEALS: An easy 2 for 1 here. The Pats D in the 13th round and Lamar Jackson in the 11th. The Pats D is the #1 D in fantasy and averages 18.7 points per week. They’ve scored 5 TDs on the year which is more than Saquon Barkley, Alvin Kamara, DeAndre Hopkins, Leveon Bell and Joe Mixon – all of those guys were 1st round picks. They’re a cheat code and are almost bad for fantasy football. Speaking of cheat-codes – Lamar Jackson is another one. He’s leading all players in fantasy points and is QB1 on the year. He already has 576 rushing yards which is 6th best in the NFL among all players. He’s been mediocre as an actual QB, but he’s been great as a fantasy QB. 

BUSTS: Another 2 for 1 here since it’s my team and I’ve been waiting 7 weeks to complain about these scrubs. Joe Mixon in the 1st and Zach Ertz in the 3rd. Ertz has been painfully mediocre at TE – he has 35 catches (5th among TEs), 404 receiving yards (also 5th) and just 1 TD on the season (23 TEs have 2 or more). Using the same logic as I did for Kelce – I have to say Ertz is a bust.

I’ll end on Joe Mixon. What a laughably bad pick by me in the first round. After leading the entire AFC with 1,200 rushing yards in 2018, Mixon has rushed for a pitiful 254 through 7 games this season. That’s a 16 game pace of 580 yards. He’s nearly half-way through his 16 game schedule and he has yet to score a rushing TD. He only has 71 fantasy points and is RB32 on the season. If you take away the 2 short receiving TDs he has on the year, he’d have fewer than 60 fantasy points in 7 games. He rushed 10 times for 2 yards last week. Fuck Joe Mixon.