just gross how many fantasy points are being scored by people I don't own in this quarter. What a mistake I made turning on this game

Still have to root against garbage time here. Watch Diggs and Allen put up another 10 points each.

Etienne having a big day too. The Jax cover is secured, but I'm dreading seeing Etienne in some opponents' lineups

Ridley should have slid down in bounds after the catch, but would have been a tough move to pull off

these ticky-tack RTP penalties are idiotic

receivers have become like soccer players, whining for the flag on every play.

the Jaguars Josh Allen should watch Highlander before the Bills matchup. There can only be one!

I've said it before, but the former-officials serving as rules analysts are as bad as the former CIA officials they trot out on cable news.

Why sneak for the first down in 2nd and 2? You like 1st and 10 better than 2nd and 2? Makes no sense.

was forced to start Damien Harris because Barkley is hurt and Kenny Walker on bye. At least most of the players in this game haven't done shit, either. Rooting for failure, it's all I have left.

real man rejects the cart even if he's dead

just joining the London game now. I'm not chaining myself to the sofa for 14 hours just because the NFL tells me to

I thought Jonathan Taylor would be a league-winner when he came back, and so I eagerly awaited picking him in Round 7 (half a rounder earlier than his average) in my high stakes Primetime draft. I got snaked by one pick. Bad luck.

Should have taken him at the 4/5 turn instead 2.5 rounds ahead of ADP.

That was a more entertaining game than I had expected between these teams, and I look forward to finding out who used the Football Team in Survivor.

I’m dreading looking up which of my teams was facing Justin Fields and especially DJ Moore. People were so quick to pile on Fields after the first three games, but if you watched the guy play last year, you knew he wasn’t a deer-in-headlights type. He can play.

Every time Fields threw to Moore, it was a huge play. Every time he targeted Darnell Mooney it was just out of reach.

Whenever the Bears got to 3rd-and-7, they could just hand it off to Khalil Herbert who easily got the first down every time. Unfortunately, both he and Roschon Johnson both got hurt. Wonder if we see D’Onta Foreman next week. I could easily see him going off for 100 yards and two scores against the Vikings.

I thought about picking up Sam Howell this week for the matchup, was glad I hadn’t in the first half, but now realize I should have — 388 passing yards, 2 TD, 18 rush yards and a two-point conversion. Howell isn’t that fast, but he fights for extra yardage like he’s Deebo Samuel.

I get Pennyslot Ron kicking the field goal to cut the deficit from 16 to 13 early in the fourth quarter — it’s one thing to say “two-score game” but quite another to convert two two-point conversions just to tie. At 13, two TDs with PATs wins, and when the Bears kicked a FG on their next drive, the game was still alive, as the Team was only down two scores still. But it must have been a kick in the nuts to the offense to settle for three after Howell moved Mount Everest on third down to make it a manageable 4th-and-3.

I could never find a TE for my Dynasty League, so I traded for Taysom Hill who I started with Logan Thomas (11-9-77-1) on my bench this week.

Eleven players caught passes for the Team. Terry McLaurin was invisible for most of the game. At one point, I thought he might be hurt.

I had picked up the Team in a few leagues to start their defense this week. Luckily, I swapped them out at the last minute in two of them. (Had a bad vibe about Fields going off.)

The 40-minute edited version of the games continues to be plagued by instant replays. You don’t mind in real time because it happens between plays, and there’s so much down time anyway, but it kills the rhythm and is super annoying. Yes, I see the safety was untouched and sacked the quarterback now from three angles. It really did happen, I believe you, you don’t need to show it to me again. FFS, just move it along already.

I like picking the whole 16-game (or with byes 14-game) slate sometimes more than just five for the SuperContests. You get into a rhythm with it, and the bad bounces offset more.

People are complaining about Darren Waller's production, but it'll come. Just need to give Dimes time to throw. Actually not worried about him even though everyone else is.

Grading My "Bold" MLB Predictions From March

Now that the season’s over, it’s time to revisit these and give them a grade.

1. Liam Hendriks gets 30 saves

I drafted him late in two leagues, and I should have gotten him in all four. He was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in January, and I couldn’t find good information about how long that meant he’d be out. The team said they’d give us an update near Opening Day, and we got one — that he’s not being put on the 60-day DL. I assume that means he’ll be back before May, but if he feels good — and he’s already throwing — why not even in late April?

Verdict: False. He returned in late May and got his first save on June 6, so I had a chance, but then he tore his elbow and had to have Tommy John surgery. (0-1)

2. Fernando Tatis goes 35-35

This might not seem bold, but he’s missing 20 games due to a suspension, and the 35 steals are well beyond his projected totals. I just think he’ll be shot out of a cannon once he finally returns after so much time off. He’s too big a talent to slow down. By year’s end, people will have wished they took him in the top five.

Verdict: False. He went 25-29, but never really got into a massive groove. Not the worst prediction, but still an L. (0-2)

3. Wander Franco will return second-round value at a minimum

The quad injury isn’t ideal because he had it last year too, but he’s in the Opening Day lineup, so he’s okay for now. Franco just turned 22 — he’s six months younger than Corbin Carroll — and is one of the best prospects of the last decade. He hit .351 in rookie ball at age 17 and .338 at High-A at 18. All he needs is 600 at-bats — the breakout is coming.

Verdict: False. Franco’s season got cut short due to accusations he had a relationship with a 14-year old in the Dominican Republic. Given how the Trevor Bauer story shook out, we probably shouldn’t jump to any conclusions, and I’m definitely guilty of making the joke that I didn’t price in “molestation risk” when I drafted him in three of four leagues! But I probably shouldn’t contribute to the pile-on before the allegations are proven.

(This didn’t have nearly the pile-on that Bauer’s did, but even so, the Bauer episode should be a lesson in the importance of due process and journalistic integrity, though I doubt it’ll be learned.)

In any event Franco had a 17-58-65-30 season going and was hitting .281 three quarters of the way through. Tack on another 25 percent, he has something like 23 HR, 77 RBI, 85 runs and 40 SB with a .281 average. Probably not Round 2, but maybe Round 3 worthy. So even in the non-molestation-accusation universe, he still fell short. (0-3)

4. Lance Lynn will have a better year than Corbin Burnes

I drafted this before today’s game, I promise. The problem with Burnes was his post-ASB ERA of 3.97 and his dip in K-rate, while Lynn dealt over the season’s final two months. It’s not usually good to cherrypick pieces of a season but given Lynn started off injured and ineffective, and the second half was back to his level, I’m buying it. And Burnes was great in 2020-21 and the first half of 2022, but few pitchers sustain that level for more than a short peak.

Verdict: False. I drafted Lynn to all four of my NFBC teams, and he detroyed my ERA and WHIP. Had I taken, say, Sonny Gray instead, I’d have won the Main Event league and cashed in two other BCLs. Burnes won three fewer games and had only nine more Ks than Lynn, but his ERA (3.39) and WHIP (1.07) destroyed him. (0-4)

5. Matt Olson will outproduce Vladimir Guerrero

Guerrero’s monster 2021 looks like a ballpark-driven outlier next to the rest of his career, and the nine steals last year might also be anomalous. Olson wasn’t great last year off the big contract and replacing Freddie Freeman, but now he’s settled in and hitting in the middle of a loaded lineup, in a park that’s much better than where he played for most of his career.

Verdict: True. This is a resounding W, given Olson was three rounds cheaper, and destroyed him so thoroughly, going 54-139-127-.283. Guerrero (.264) couldn’t even beat him in batting average and did regress in steals too, despite the friendlier running environment. (1-4)

6. Chris Bassitt will outperform Shane Bieber

I had a premonition about Bassitt who’s a good pitcher, but nothing more than that. This is mostly a Bieber fade as his velocity and K-rates were down last year.

Verdict: True. The premonition was real. Bassitt had 16 wins, 186 Ks and helped a small amount in ERA and WHIP. Bieber was worse in every category and missed roughly 10 starts with an injury. (2-4)

7. Jesus Luzardo will return top-five round value

He and Reid Detmers strike me as the obvious breakout candidates among pitchers, but I hope it’s Luzardo because I got two shares of him and none of Detmers. Luzardo was an elite propsect who started to put it together last year. If healthy, he takes the leap.

Verdict: False. It was actually close, but Luzardo’s 10 wins and 1.22 WHIP put him a little short of fifth-round-worthy. He struck out 208 batters, though, more than Burnes, and had a 3.63 ERA. (2-5)

8. Josh Jung wins AL Rookie of the Year

I got him in two leagues, so maybe this is the endowment effect, but he’s a former top prospect who got a late start due to injuries. He raked at Triple-A in 2021 and in spring training this year. Being older gives him less long-term ceiling, but a better chance for a good floor in 2023.

Verdict: False. He had a decent shot halfway through the year, but got hurt and was surpassed by Gunnar Henderson. (2-6)

9. Miguel Vargas wins NL Rookie of the Year

I only got one share of him, but thankfully it was in my Main Event, and he’s a top hitting prospect in an elite lineup. I don’t love him trying to play second base in the majors right away, but he did play seven games there in the minors last year and 17 in 2021.

Verdict: LOL. He was terrible and got sent down. (2-7)

10. Some of these predictions will be wrong

Making this prediction means I’ll never get 10 out of 10, but it’s worth it to avoid going 0-for-10.

Verdict: True. Definitely nailed this one. (3-7)

It was an uneventful week in the end, despite close calls with the Chiefs and Eagles. I still have my four entries in the offshore book alive, the home pool and the Seslowsky pool.

Here are the numbers for Week 5:

There is no pot-odds play here because the Dolphins and Lions ownership is too close to make a difference. And the Commanders are far less likely to win than those two teams. So it’s still take whoever you think will win this week.

I'll talk with Seslowsky about it on tomorrow’s podcast, but right now I’m leaning Lions in part because I’m a homer who doesn’t want to get knocked off by his own team, but in part because if Andrew Thomas and Saquon Barkley are back, I think it’ll be a tight game.

The Panthers are a desperate animal, but I don’t see Bryce Young pulling it off, and the Lions pass rush looked good Thursday night too.

The Bears (who looked like an NFL team against last week) could easily beat the Team.

I’m all in on the Lions this week, but we’ll see what Alan has to say about that in our shared pool.

Looks like Trevor Bauer did not do what he was accused of, and his accuser was joking about scamming him from the beginning.

The number of apologies and retractions from people who piled on to create an atmosphere of hate and intolerance to destroy his career will be zero.

I hope he sues all the malfactors involved, not least the Dodgers and MLB who went along with the mob.

Will lazy sports "journalists" update their priors and learn from this? Doubtful.

But that's okay -- you can get your sports analysis here.

The Daniel Jones hate is misplaced. Patrick Mahomes would have been destroyed under those conditons too.