2018 Week 8— Pick Six

Checking in around the D|League

The doors are open for Babytron to make a major impact over the next 8 weeks. But tbh, I just wanted to put a picture of Golladay :)

Clearly the bottom four teams of last week’s power rankings were angry at me for placing them there because they all won in Week 8. Sorry dudes! Your reward is a belated blurb for you in four of the six topics covered below.

1. Jeff’s motto: Win dirty. His ragtag group of veterans continues to rack up points, at least relative to the other teams around him in the standings. (864.29 total, essentially tied for 9th in the league.) It’s still unclear what direction Jeff is trying to take his team but at this rate, it’s very possible he could squeeze out a Chumpion title and more importantly, the additional 1st Round Pick. Accomplishing that would probably be worth more than selling off players like Latavius Murray and DeSean Jackson for 3rd Round Picks.
2. Lando roared back to life in Week 8 with 134.99 points. Could things be turning around for the preseason’s 5th ranked team? Evan Engram looked healthy last week after his early season MCL injury and has a Week 9 Bye to get 100%. Marvin Jones gets a nice bump with the Tate trade. And while the TyMont trade might be more of a boost for Jamaal Williams since he’s more similar to a 3rd down (pass-catching) skillset, it’s still an extremely positive sign for Aaron Jones’ snap and touch counts. Look out D|League, Lando might be a dark horse playoff team.
3. J Tong also bounced back from a rough Week 7 and dropped 132.39 points in Week 8. He had a rough Weeks 1–3 but has since shown an ability to get hot, going 3–2 in the last five weeks and averaging 129.94 points in his three wins. Unfortunately he can also put up some big duds, averaging 82.77 in his losses. Phillip Lindsay and Tarik Cohen have emerged as consistent RB2’s and combined with Sony Michel and Zeke, J Tong now has some of the best RB depth in the league. The question is — can they carry the aging duo of Edelman and Thomas and a bare-bones TE position?
4. Bunger, aka the Merchant. He’s made it clear that he’s open for business and willing to #trusttheprocess. Until then, he’s happy to try and muck up the standings, starting with a comeback victory over Mikey in Week 8. It’ll be interesting to see who attempts to make a move with him, as Cooks and Mixon are not cheap Dynasty assets. Bunger will have no problem walking away from any sub-par offers since those two players are still young and can be a part of the rebuild that Bunger is facilitating. Will someone break the bank to get Bunger’s attention?
5. Zooming out a bit, there should be an intense battle for the four Chumpion playoff spots. Teams 8 through 13 in the standings all have 3–5 records, so slots 8 through 10 are prime for the taking. In fact, with (6) JR and (7) Tani sitting at 4–4, a surprise 6th main playoff team can’t be ruled out either. As usual, don’t forget about Josh, who’s sadly sitting at 14th. With the 3rd most points in the league, he would immediately jump up the standings if he can finally pull out a couple wins and tie the teams above him in record. Yahoo actually predicts him to still finish 7–6, but I’m not sure if that’s supposed to make him feel better or worse.
6. A Week Nine matchup to keep an eye on: JR is projected to blow out Mikey on Yahoo. Mikey could fall as low as 6th with a loss due to point tiebreakers and if Kurtis, Kevin, and Anton win their matchups. I said last week Mikey was almost guaranteed a playoff spot with a 6–1 record but that might have been premature. A losing streak would put him on thin ice over the next five weeks if he can’t increase his scoring production to give him some tiebreaker advantages.