Week #2

The BeaudoinBrothers recovered from a mediocre start in week #1 with a week #2 win and moved up to second in the standings behind Bas who won week #1.  This week was not entirely good news however, because first round pick A Richardson got concussed and could miss some time.  The rookie QB was nonetheless able to beat his projection with 16.5 pts despite playing only 16 minutes of football and leaving early in the 2nd quarter.  If only he could stay on the field he will easily be worth his first round pick status but drafting a running QB is riskier than drafting a pocket passer so if Richardson misses time, the Bros will not be able to simply blame bad luck – the high likelihood of Richardson being hurt is something that could have easily been foreseen at draft time.  The same can be said of Hurts who is not injured yet but barely beat his projection with 24 pts this week and did not top 200 passing yards, in complete contrast with 2022.  The better news were on defense where all starters scored at least 9 pts and if Beaud had started C Wilkins instead of Buckner it would have been 5/5 into the double digit scores. 

ProfMJ had a second solid straight week with second place this week by beating Bas but failing to catch up with Beaud on MNF because M Garrett did not do much (2 pts) and was easily overshadowed by G Delpit (Beaud) who scored 11 pts in the decisive matchup for first place.  QB D Jones was the leader for Prof with 30.25 pts in a come from behind win in Arizona and old man K Allen showed he’s still WR1 for the Chargers with a dominant 8-111-2.  M Andrews was sorely missed in week 1 but he came back strong this week with 5 receptions and a TD.  Prof’s RBs Pollard and Conner were both productive with 11 and 13.75 pts respectively, and even better on the bench both Swift and B Robinson scored 20+ so after 2 weeks, Prof has 4 of the top 10 RBs in the PQBFL.  On defense the Eagles had their hands full against the Vikings and allowed 28 pts which was not very good but at least they recovered 4 fumbles to match their weekly projection of 7.5 pts.  The most problematic position for Prof so far is DB where both Grant and K Hamilton only scored 4 pts this week (Grant started, Hamilton was benched) and they rank DB16 and DB21 so far after two weeks.  Prof is the only team in the PQBFL which only drafted 2 DBs; all other teams drafted 3 DBs.  This could come back to bite due to having no position depth if both continue their poor play.

The GloriousBastards are the only team in the PQBFL which finished in the blue in both weeks of the season so far and consequently logically sit atop of the standings and have scored a league-leading 164.6 pts on average.  In addition, Bas not only have the highest strength of starters at 191.9 but also the best coaching efficiency at 83.1%.  Needless to say it would be greedy to ask for a better season start.  This week Ju Herbert led the way with 23 pts but it was in another losing effort for the Chargers which dropped them to 0-2 so there is room for improvement.  D Smith caught a TD bomb for the Eagles and scored 19.5 pts which left AJ Brown (Prof) in the dust.  So far D Smith is WR4 in the PQBFL while AJ Brown is surprisingly languishing at WR30.  The Cowboys defense had another huge day with 18.5 pts by holding the Jets to only 10 pts and 215 yards of total offense.  Not only Dallas has the highest average in the entire PQBFL at 28.5 pts (even higher than any QB!) but their lead over second best is also the most of any position as they are exactly double the second best defense (Browns, OldNo7 with 14.25 pts).  Either they will end up one of the best defenses in the history of the NFL along with the 1985 Bears or 2000 Ravens, or the Cowboys will slow down because this is not sustainable.

WaxOnWaxOff bounced back from last place in week #1 with 4th place in week #2 but found no reason to celebrate due to injuries to Burrow and Barkley which will put a serious dent in Wax’s chances this year.  Barkley’s absence will be painful because Wax does not have a viable RB2 let alone a RB3.  It’s less clear that Burrow will be injured long-term but Stafford and Pickett were not expected to be starter material and at the moment they are not even backup material either (QB10-18) because they rank QB20 and QB22.  That said Burrow has not done better so far with a dismal rank of QB23.  The one good news was C Kirk who proved week 1 was only an aberration, this week he caught 11 balls and it was rather Ridley (Beaud) who was seldom used.  The Vikings aerial offense continued to do well this week and Jefferson (15.75 pts) + Hockenson (20.25 pts) both benefited for Wax.  Rookie CJ Stroud was benched due to an injury worry but he ended up being fine and scored 21.75 pts on the bench while starter Roschon Johnson did little with 42 yards from scrimmage.  Defense was better in week #2 than week #1 for Wax but still not performing at the level that it should with a total of 38.5 pts for the 4 individual defenders plus the Chargers.  The only one who beat his projection was D Deablo with 14 pts.  He was not even supposed to be a starter on this loaded defensive roster but he’s the only one delivering the goods so far.

FlyingElvis finished a middling 5th this week with 137 pts in the absence of Ekeler and Dobbins who are both injured.  Akers seemingly has been benched by the Rams so that left FE with the bare minimum 2 RBs who were both pedestrian with 3.5 pts for Etienne and 4.25 pts for Gibson.  WR G Wilson is affected by A Rodgers’ injury (Ball) but will not accrue injury points so there is not even a consolation prize for this one.  This week Wilson got a temporary reprieve thanks to catching a long TD of 68 yds but he only caught one other pass so going forward if he has 2 receptions per game he’s going to be pretty piss poor.  DL is also developing into a problematic position with A Donald only scoring one point this week.  Of all DLs who have played both games this year, he’s dead last in the PQBFL with an average of 3.5 pts per game (DL23).  Is he washed up?  D Lawrence on the bench is barely better as DL21 and C Jones is whining about the Raiders’ staff sending people at his home to discuss about his contract and has yet to see the field.  The rest of FE’s defense was quite good particularly TJ Watt scoring 21 pts with 1 defensive TD and 4 QB hits.

The Ballers improved this week with 6th place but remained 8th in the standings.  There were more bright spots in week #2 than week #1, most notably Lamar Jackson was more active now that Dobbins (FE) is injured.  Jackson scored an adequate 23.25 pts but was outscored again by Goff on the bench with 26.75 pts.  Goff now ranks QB5 in the PQBFL compared to QB18 for Lamar.  Deebo Samuel started as WR2 and also had a better week #2 as the main receiver in SF instead of Aiyuk (Beaud) including a TD and 6 receptions for 15.5 pts.  Ball’s WR1 Diggs caught 7 passes but his yardage was subpar and no TD so he barely reached double digits.  The RB position remains a far bigger problem than WR with J Jacobs + J Williams only scoring 9.75 pts combined, Jeff Wilson is injured, and C Patterson was seemingly a healthy scratch because he was not on the injury list and did not play on Sunday.  Considering how extensively the Falcons are using Bijan (Bas) with 19 carries this week and Allgeier (16 carries), it’s not clear that the Falcons still have a plan for Cordarrelle.  Another problem for the Ballers is the rookie position where R Rice was relegated to a minor role in KC with T Kelce coming back from injury.  Rice only scored 3 pts and the backup rookies did not do better.

After a strong week #1, OldNo7 sputtered to 7th place in week #2 by barely edging Adm by half a point and Dec by 3 pts so Old was not far from last.  Old drafted Lawrence in the 5th round and Cousins in the 6th round so clearly the intent was for Lawrence to be the starter but he only scored 6 pts this week in what could have been a high scoring affair against the Chiefs but the Jags did not even score a single TD.  Meanwhile Cousins scored 33 pts on the bench and sits at QB2 in the entire PQBFL after 2 weeks so it’s worth wondering if Old will have the courage of starting Cousins at some point.  While Lawrence did not score, Old was able to avoid last place because both CMC and Ty Hill did score and those were Old’s only 2 TDs for the week except for college QB McCall who also had two.  Amon-Ra had good stats without a TD 6-102 but he lost a fumble so he was below expectations, and the rest of Old’s lineup was also below expectations: Pacheco + Njoku + Butker + 49ers + Hubbard + Singleton + Smith-Njigba.  The only exceptions were TJ Edwards and Sneed who scored 12 pts and 12.5 pts respectively.

Adm finished near the bottom with 8th place but the worst news was franchise player Chubb being injured and his season is possibly over.  It is nearly impossible to lose a franchise player so early in the year and remain competitive in the PQBFL so Adm will probably start looking at 2024 sooner rather than later.  First round pick D Henry got on track with 12.75 pts and saved Adm from finishing last with a TD and almost 100 yds from scrimmage in the Titans’ win against the Chargers.  WR Tee Higgins was an even brighter spot with 8-89-2 after his stunning goose egg in week #1 to lead all of Adm’s starters with 22.25 pts.  Defense was very poor for Adm this week with a total of only 23.5 pts from the 5 starters combined, the “least bad” being Maxx Crosby with 7 pts which was nonetheless below his elevated projection since he was probably DL1 on the draft list of almost everybody in the PQBFL one month ago.  Adm started 2 DLs this week again which can be a risky strategy, it worked in week #1 but not so much this week, with Hutchinson scoring only 3.5 pts as flex while LBs J Bosa and D Campbell were on the bench with 12 pts and 14 pts.

The Decepticons drafted with the future in mind and so far the 2023 season start is as slow as forecast, with Dec being the only team to finish in the red both weeks.  Unlike last week, the output of young players on Dec’s roster as it relates to their 2024 potential was more of a mixed bag than week #1 however.  Mahomes started and scored 21 pts which was fine, but all eyes were on Tua Tago on the bench who only scored 10.5 pts.  Breece Hall had an excellent week #1 but he followed up with only 9 yards from scrimmage in week #2.  WR Doubs was benched by Dec and did little despite C Watson (Bas) still being out, in fact he was outshined by rookie Jayden Reed who also belongs to Dec and also benched at the rookie position, so at least Doubs’ trouble could benefit Reed.  Dec started Sam LaPorta as rookie and he scored 9 pts which is not bad at all for any TE, let alone a rookie TE.  Rookie Achane was benched by Dec but active for the Dolphins rather than healthy scratch (as in week #1) so it was an improvement but he only scored 0.75 pt.  At draft time it was unclear if Shaquille Leonard still had some gas left in the tank but Dec drafted Zaire Franklin as a complement.  This week Leonard was poor with only 3 pts while Franklin crushed him with 14 pts.  It was the second week that Franklin beat Leonard by more than 10 pts. 





PQBFL Home | Season 2023 | Standings 2023 | Leaders By Position 2023