Week #1

The BeaudoinBrothers stormed out of the gate with a smashing win capped by a 19.5 pt game on MNF by none other than freaking kicker Jake Moody who made 6 FGs, two of which were above 50 yards.  The only two starters to outscore Moody this week were C Kupp (25 pts) and Ty Hill (21.5 pts).  Rumor has it that the cops who arrested Hill before the game had bet personal money on the Jaguars, but they failed miserably because Hill was able to lead the Fins to victory thanks to a long 80-yd TD.  Old man Kupp seems healthy for the first time since 2021 and he benefited from the intra game injury to Nacua (Ball).  Defense was as solid as offense with all four individual starters (Dugger, Buckner, Q Walker, and Ro Smith) scoring double digits.

WaxOnWaxOff was leading Beaud before the SNF game but was beat on MNF by a late surge from the Bros.  Nonetheless second place with 164.75 pts was more than fine for Wax.  S Barkley scored 3 TDs in Brazil to kick things off and A Richardson tied Barkley with 29.5 pts.  A-Rich has barely scratched the surface of what he can do, he almost scored 30 pts despite only completing only 9 passes all game plus an INT which is mind blowing.  If he can improve and stay healthy, he has franchise player potential written all over.  Wax lagged at the WR position with Ju Jefferson only scoring 11.75 pts in an easy win against the Giants and DK Metcalf was weak with only 4.25 pts.  All backup WRs on the bench for Wax were equally bad ranging from 2.5 pts to 5.75 pts for Kirk, Cooper, and Sutton so if Metcalf does not improve, this could be problematic.

FE started 2024 with an adequate 146.75 pts which was worth 3rd place this week.  Franchise player Josh Allen was by far the best FE player on the field with 29.75 pts but his non-throwing hand injury is a moderate concern going forward.  FE’s other franchise player did not impress nearly as much with only 6.75 pts for Etienne and even worse news is that Bigsby had the same number of rushes (12) as Etienne and looked better while doing it (Bigsby 73 yds vs Etienne 44 yds). On defense, TJ Watt, Wagner and Crosby all scored double digits and the only one who missed the mark was the overrated DB Metellus with only 6.5 pts.  The early season success of college RB Jeanty is worth noting.  This week he scored 3 TDs with 200 yards from scrimmage which is on top of his opening game two weeks ago (which did not count for PQBFL purposes) where he scored an eye-popping 6 TDs on 267 rushing yards.

Preseason projections have Bas near the top and week #1 was a bit below expectations with fourth place.  Offense was not good enough to win but what boosted Bas’ score this week was Dallas continuing where they left off 2023 with a TD and six sacks of the sorry Browns for a total of 19.5 pts.  Offense was a mixed bag, M Evans enjoyed a fine day against the toothless Washington defense with 2 TDs but J Chase was more rusty due to his holdout and scored only 10 pts.  Mahomes managed the game well enough to get the Chiefs the W and he was playing a tough BAL defense, but 13.75 pts was considerably below his weekly projection.  Rookie Bo Nix did not impress on his first day with 6.25 pts and will need to pick up his game to justify his lofty pick at 12th overall.

The Admirals started the year in the middle of the pack with 5th place by edging Prof and Old by less than 5 pts.  The season started on the right foot for Adm on TNF with 2 TDs from X Worthy which is hopefully a sign of great things to come for the rookie.  His 19.25 pts was Adm’s top score, even outscoring franchise player AJ Brown who had a nice game of his own with 18.75 pts.  The main offensive underperformers were QB Murray who only scored 1 TD for 12 pts against the Bills and high-prized TE LaPorta being limited to 4 short receptions and no TD for 6.25 pts.  Defense was generally poor with 3 pts from the Texans, 2 pts from M Sweat, and 3.5 pts from Hines-Allen.  Even top-rated DB Winfield did not do anything to write home about with 7 pts all from tackles and assists, he did not have any big plays.

ProfMJ struggled with 6th place but avoided a worse result by beating Old by only 0.5 pt and Dec by 4 pts.  There were a couple of puzzling coaching calls this week, the main one being M Garrett on the bench in favor of D Hunter who failed miserably with only 2.5 pts while Garrett scored 9 on the bench, costing Prof one rank.  The other was starting Ju Herbert and benching Prescott but in the end both were equally subpar with 11.25 pts for Herbert and 11.5 pts for Prescott.  The team leaders for Prof were Julian Love who had a monster game with 21 pts and was the overall best defensive player of the week, D Samuels with 13.75 pts, and kicker Fairbairn who nailed 3 FGs of 50+ yards.  The biggest hole in Prof’s lineup this week was franchise rookie Harrison who scored a stunning 1 pt (1 reception for 4 yards).  He still has time to turn things around but that has the early smell of a god-awful franchise player.

OldNo7’s title defense started the wrong way with 7th place.  In all of 2023 Old finished above average (1st to 4th) 15/18 weeks, and now Old already tied 2023 for how many times Old finished in the red (= one).  In a week where the Saints scored 47 pts, Olave had a paltry stat line of 2 receptions for 11 yards, what on earth happened?  Amon-Ra was almost equally bad with 4.5 pts even in a game where he benefited from extra playing time as the Lions drove down the field to win in overtime.  Burrow was playing without Higgins (Beaud) and Chase was not himself, but nonetheless 6.5 pts was awful by Burrow’s own standards.  Thank god for the Bears defense which bailed out Old in a major way with 2 TDs as they scored as many TDs as all OldNo7 offensive players combined even including rookie and college. 

The Decepticons ranked top 2 or top 3 in preseason projections for starters and key backups but week #1 was anything but.  Straight out of the gate Jordan Love showed why it is uncomfortable to draft only 2 QBs.  Love had an ok game with 18.5 pts but got hurt and will miss time so for the next few weeks Tua Tago better stay on his feet or Dec’s ship will sink fast.  Caleb Williams was the first rookie drafted and he was terrible with 93 passing yards in a game that the Bears were playing from behind until mid way in the 4th quarter so they had to throw.  The Cons have invested quite a bit in the Falcons with Pitts and D London.  The former scored but only had two other short receptions, and London was a complete non-factor with QB Cousins who did not look right.  It sounds ominous for Dec.

The Ballers were projected at the bottom of the standings and week #1 did not give an unforeseen result in that regard.  The season started well with Lamar Jackson scoring 24 pts despite his main target M Andrews being managed by an aggressive game plan by the Chiefs D so L-Jax showed he can produce without his main receiver.  Also, Kenneth Walker showed he will probably be the main engine of the Seahawks offense this year; he scored 16 pts this week and was dominant.  However injuries are already starting to hit (including Walker at the end of the game) and have affected Ball this week.  Rookie Rome Odunze could not finish the game and had a fat zero (1 reception and fumble not lost).  Puka Nacua also left early after scoring only 6 pts and he will miss at least 4 games because he’s now on IR.  Starter G Wilson was limited to 9 pts and nobody else on the WR bench scored double digits for Ball so it’s unclear that help is coming.   




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