WEEK 11 - PART 2
HOW’S HOOTERS? KiTTLES? (5-6):
ONE: Could this be the greatest in-season comeback in league history? Lamone started his season with a 5 game losing streak, but now finds himself in 5th place after winning 5 of his last 6. Personally I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team make the playoffs after starting 0-5. It’s a seemingly insurmountable hole to start your season in and usually means you had some big-time busts from your draft (Lamone did). He still has some work to do to pull it off, but it’s looking good for now.
TWO: Will the Michael Thomas trade come back to bite Lamone in the ass? Fantasy karma is undefeated and let’s face it…this trade was pretty bad. It was bad when it was made and it’s worse now. Carlos Hyde has been respectable, ranking as RB17, but Michael Thomas is the #1 WR in fantasy and the #21 scoring player in all of fantasy. If you take out QBs he’s the #9 player in fantasy. We’ll see how the rest of the season goes, but this is something to watch.
Return of The Mack (7-4):
ONE: How badly will Frader’s team suffer from the Marlon Mack injury? Mack was Frader’s 2nd best RB and has been a workhorse all season. While he’s only RB12 in our scoring, he’s scored 11 or more points in all but 1 game. He’s been a consistent and steady presence in Frader’s lineup and his loss definitely weakens the team. There’s no estimated timeline for his recovery as of now.
TWO: Will Tyler Lockett be limited by his shin injury going forward? He’s had 2 weeks to recover thanks to their bye, but he’s still questionable for Week 12. He also spent time in the hospital for the injury which doesn’t sound good. Lockett has been Frader’s best WR and if he’s limited or misses any time, it really exposes Frader’s WR group. DJ Moore has been good, but behind that it’s Terry McLaurin and Marquise Brown.
Butt Kicker Dot Com (7-4):
ONE: Who will win the Keetz vs, Frader matchup in Week 12? This is the matchup of the week for Week 12 and will have pretty far reaching consequences for the playoff seeding. The winner will be 8-4 and threatening for a playoff bye. The loser will be 7-5 and will have three teams nipping at their heels (Rob D, Dyl and Lamone all at 5-6.) I’m 99% sure both teams will make the playoffs, but the seeding is very much up in the air.
TWO: Is Josh Jacobs going to wear down as the season goes on? He’s been huge for Keetz this season and is RB8 as of press time. He’s leading all rookies with 191 carries for 923 yards and 7 rushing TDs. Add in his receiving totals (17-144) and he’s over 1,000 total yards on the season. The problem is that he hasn’t had a workload like this before. His 191 carries are more than he had during any of his seasons at Alabama and not that far off from the total amount of carries he had in his 3 seasons there (only 251 career carries at Bama). I feel like he’s questionable at one point or another every week, but ends up playing. I could be making this up, but it’ll be interesting to see.
Daddy’s Little Gurl (8-3):
ONE: Can Kenny get the #1 seed two years in a row? Last year he (and Hasudin) finished the regular season at 10-3 and earned the #1 seed. (Unfortunately for him he lost in the second round and finished in 4th place.) He’s in 2nd place right now and 1 game back, but if he wins out he could get the 1 seed.
TWO: What will Ken get out of Tyreek Hill and Adam Thielen the rest of the way? Thielen has been hurt and essentially missed the last 4 games with injury. He has a bye this week, but should be back for Week 13. Hill on the other hand – he missed the first 4-5 weeks with injury, before lighting the league up for the next 5-6 weeks. He got hurt on Monday Night Football in Week 11 and doesn’t have a timetable for his return. It’s a hamstring injury which is just about the worst thing you can have as a speedy WR. The health of these two will likely define the rest of Ken’s season.
The Permian Panthers (9-2):
ONE: Is Cooper Kupp a must-start WR? He was absolutely on fire through the first 5 weeks of the season, averaging 21 points per game. Since then he’s scored 3.7 points, 8 points, 36.5 points (#Bengals), ZERO points and 6.8 points in his next 5 games. That’s an average of 11 points, but only 4.6 points if you take out the monster game vs. the Bengals. The Rams offense looks inept right now and Kupp has the potential to kill a lot of teams if he keeps this (Ku)up.
TWO: Is Joe Mixon finally trustworthy? Over his last three games, he’s scored 19, 25 and 20 points with 17, 30 and 15 carries. He finally had a rushing TD in Week 11, his first of the year. Other than the Pats in Week 15 (perfect timing), his schedule is decent. Is this turn around real?
