Week 3 Recap!

This was a rough week for The Gentleman as I went 3 - 4 and apparently, many players in the NFL are reading the blog and using negative comments as bulletin board material because a lot of people who were called out had great games this week.

DEREK vs BRETT: PICK - BRETT / WINNER - DEREK
Move over, The Studio! This Fall’s best new comedy is Derek’s QB Carousel. Derek dumped Geno Smith, who went on to score 31.9 points, and went instead with CJ Stroud (12.2 points.) But IDP made the difference in this game and, in Brett’s own IDP Carousel, Ivan Pace - freed from the shackles of being rostered by Brett - went out and scored double digits, something no IDP player has been able to do while starting for K-Kel this season. On the bright side, Brett started with Jerome Baker (2.5 points all season), Micah Parsons (8.5 points all season), and Reed Blankenship (8 points all season) so we’re at least seeing baby steps towards fielding a winning defensive unit.
For both squads, there’s a real concern of a Brown(ing) out as both Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins were wildly underwhelming. And now Brett’s top receiver is about to have Jaxson Dart under center. The panic meter in Vegas is high.

BRENDAN vs JOHNNY: PICK - BRENDAN / WINNER - JOHNNY
Karmic payback for Johnny who finally got a bad win - scoring the third lowest this week but still coming out ahead of a reeling Thee Gospel, who lost CeeDee Lamb and also has Brian Thomas Jr. who lost the ability to score points. But we can’t blame the loss on CeeDee Lamb’s injury because Brendan’s bench WRs - Marvin Mims, Hunter Renfrow, and Dyami Brown - barely did better than Lamb’s goose egg. In fact, if you combined all three of their scores, Brendan still would have lost. Adding injury to insult, Brendan lost Najee Harris for the season.
The big question for next week is: Will Johnny finally start Emeka Egbuka? The best E.E. since Cummings will now be the WR1 in Tampa Bay because Mike Evans is sidelined with an injury.

MARK vs JUSTIN: PICK - JUSTIN / WINNER - MARK
Who knew Mark had a week like this in him? Certainly not two podcasters who seem to take glee in besmirching the good name of North Andover’s second finest gentleman. Nor myself, who couldn’t believe that The Champ would fall to 0 - 3. Hunter Henry awoke from his slumber, Omarion Hampton lived up to the hype (and now no longer has Najee Harris stealing carries), and Mark scooped up Chase McLaughlin who booted his was to 21 points. Honestly, the only negative of the week was Marvin Harrison with the worst drop of the season.
The Champ did all he could as the #2 scorer of the week but he’s still staring down at a winless season so far. Week 3 of the Travis Hunter experiment was another flop. Hunter managed 7.6 points (which made him Justin’s third best IDP this week) and the Flex2 spot went to Wandale Robinson who could only muster 3.1 points. The experiment might start paying dividends next week now that Trey Benson is set to become the lead back in Arizona.

BERNIE vs RAHUL: PICK - RAHUL / WINNER - RAHUL
The Ravens stack did indeed take down Bernie as a reanimated Mark Andrews did damage alongside Lamar. Rahul’s clone has had the best injury luck so far this season as Bill and now Scattebo (BEE BOP BEE BOP) are their team’s lead backs. Investing in the NFC East rookie RBs might turn out to be a genius move! Speaking of rookie backs, Quinshon Judkins was another steal and insiders report that he could supplant Chase Brown in Bernie’s starting lineup next week.

ELI vs ANDY: PICK - ELI / WINNER - ELI
The Borts continue to be a juggernaut, easily walking all over Andy, whose team came out with about as much as enthusiasm as Andy does for the podcast. Perhaps the most concerning aspect of the game for Andy was that he had starters deliver low scoring games of 5.3 (Pacheco & Jameson), 3.2 (Ridley), 4 (Kirk) and still, those were his best options as even his QB on the bench - Michael Penix Jr. - wasn’t able to crack four points. RJ Harvey also continued to disappoint and Tyler Allgeier didn’t even manage one full point. Andy might need to start considering 1 for 2 deals for Justin Jefferson to help fill the holes in his roster. (Maybe something involving Bernie’s Chase Brown?)

DANA vs Player #14: PICK - DANA / WINNER - THE CANCELED ONE
David Montgomery did his best to make this one interesting and Dana’s benched Bills could have given him the win (but it’s tough to bench Ladd McConkey or Breece Hall for Khalil Shakir) but, sadly, the villain took home the victory. Bryce Young continued to prove to be allergic to being a fantasy starter, dumping 11.6 points; someone should have stuck with Mac Jones. Dana is 0 - 3 and last in points and Jake Browning might not be the answer at QB. Dana should start prepping to run the draft board next year because last place is a real possibility.

COLIN vs MENDO: PICK - COLIN / WINNER - MENDO
Overcoming James Conner’s ankle exploding, The Gentleman handled his business with Caleb Williams lighting up the Cowboys defense and Garrett Wilson and Kenneth Walker giving me big games. For Colin, Quentin Johnston continues to prove that he was worth the big free agent bid. Don’t even get me started on Rhamondre Stevenson.