And We Back! - Week 4 Weekly Wrap Up

 After a couple weeks off, the Weekly Wrap-Up returns to deliver once again the much needed laughs and trash talk that are tied so closely to the essence of fantasy football itself. I've heard musings of a certain article that might discuss the importance of this very idea... We apologize for the lack of content over the past few weeks as our understaffed MFFL employees had something called, "other responsibilities", that kept them from fulfilling the weekly fantasy content. With those responsibilities out of the way however, new content and features are in the works and should be revealed in the coming weeks! So, even if your fantasy team sucks balls (Dom), there are still tons to be excited about surrounding the MFFL. 

4 full weeks of the NFL season has brought us a barrel of great games and exciting fantasy breakouts, but unfortunately more than anything, it has brought us buckets of injuries to star players, complete duds to others, and a few COVID scares to go on the side. As is the life of a Fantasy GM though, reacting to all of these events is what leads to success. Even if that means spinning a wheel each week with the names Burkhead, Peterson, and Freeman on it to plug one of them into your RB2 slot... And somehow that is still a better situation to be in than GM August's RB nightmare. Halloween arrived a month early in Schmatter City and it looks like it's here to stay. Contrarily, other teams, particularly at the top of the following list, have found themselves in rather voluptuous RB positions with plenty of depth in their receiving room. In fact, that is precisely why this list gets made every week: to compare each team's situation with the others from around the league and laugh that GM Dominic is still at the bottom. (Spoiler alert: he is):

Power Rankings:

1.  Mr. Nice Guy- With a locked in overall WR1 Ridley and an elite RB1 Cook, GM Grafton has to be feeling good about his team going forward, especially with putting up top 2 league scoring numbers while still waiting on breakouts from his secondary RBs. 
2.  DTDB Irish Assassins- GM Connor has dominated the first 4 weeks of the season, along with the Power Rankings being at #1 for 3 consecutive weeks. The Leprechauns take a brief dip in the rankings however as they lose RB Chubb to injury for the near future and have invested in a forward looking asset at the slight expense of immediate production. More info on that to come later on in the wrap up.
3.  Belichick Yo Self- GM David has walked into another RB1 as RB Hunt will presumably take over for the Cleveland backfield with Chubb out. Alongside a Mixon breakout and newly acquired RB Henry, the Yo Selfs now boast the greatest RB tandem in the league, not to mention their solid weapons at WR and a top fantasy QB in Murray.
4. Bigpapihugetime- GM Kurt's elite WR duo of Hill and Robinson leads the way for the Huge Times while the success of RBs Gordon and Mckinnon boost them up the rankings.
5. Romanian RAPOs- Still struggling with the concept of passing, the RAPOs have developed a steady floor at RB with rookies Clyde and Robinson while promising upside at WR. The added depth at RB gives GM Michael the lift over a few closely ranked teams given the unprecedented rate of injuries at the position.
6. Tittsburgh Feelers- Being able to withstand injuries at RB with both CMC and Mostert out for multiple weeks, GM Matt and the Feelers showed their grip strength with high weekly performances from WR Metcalf and RB Gurley. As their injured star RBs get closer and closer to returning, this team will surely threaten the top ranks. 
7. Scoregasms- GM Brody and the Gasms' may have climaxed too early as injuries to all of their top WRs have stymied their electric start while their RB room hangs on by a thread named Josh Jacobs. This team was always centered around its receivers anyways, and if they can return healthy and QB DangeRUSS keeps cooking, this team could get hard again, to play against. 
8. Fantasy Football Team- The RB Ekeler injury has certainly overshadowed the incredible performance from the Team the past few weeks as they have put up points and beat opponents. However with the overall RB1 in Kamara and one of the best at TE in Kittle, this team can certainly still be competitive in the coming weeks should their depth RBs step up to the challenge.
9. Action Jackson- Solid WRs and a RB room led by Zeke of all people, this team threatens incredible upside led by Action Jackson himself, yet GM Kelly's Jackies have yet to put it all together to prove it. 
10. Don't Even Schmatter- GM August' s Nihilists make GM Brody's RB room look like a Hall of Fame meeting. This team needs QB Mahomes and TE Kelce to save them each and every week and so far it doesn't look like they are capable.
11. Top 2 Not 2- Lacking depth and marred by injuries, GM Ian hopes his newly acquired weapons, RB Sanders and WR Thielen, can lead the way to a rapid rebuild to resume competitiveness.
12. Covid's Warriors- I really almost feel bad about how poor this team looks, but I don't. Although all the jokes of GM Dominic's terrible performances are warranted, his team isn't actually quite as bad as their 0-4 start depicts. They have the most points scored against them and have not had their top pick MT fully healthy yet. Who knows, this team could be ranked 11th in the coming weeks if all goes well!

Matchup Highlights:

• Tittsburgh Feelers (2-2) lose their grip on the game, falling to DTDB Irish Assassins (4-0) 126-105.

GM Connor and his Leprechaun Mafia continued their unbeaten start to the season in a well-rounded, dominate performance over GM Matt and the Feelers. With 20 points 4 different positions, GM Connor has a full pot of gold in fantasy weapons as Allen, Cooper, Jones, and Davis have all been weekly studs. QB Rodgers led the comeback attempt for the Feelers, but in a hopeless effort, he merely gave this matchup the mirage of appearing competitive. A solid performance from RB Gurley with 20 points and a steady 12 points from each of the trio of WRs, Metcalf, Boyd and Jeudy, is promising going forward for the Feelers. Meanwhile GM Connor will have to look back into his pot of gold for a replacement nugget while RB Chubb sits out. Expect RB Ingram and/or newly acquired WR weapons, Brown and Aiyuk, to get the promotion to FLEX play in the coming weeks.

• GM Grafton and Mr. Nice Guy (2-2) have the week off, shine on their bye week. 

While the Nice Guys didn't have a actual matchup this week, they held open practices to the public and looked absolutely electric. While star WR Ridley was held without a catch this week, the team still combined for 142 points! That's correct, with their #1 receiver putting up 0 points, the Nice Guys still led the league in scoring during their scrimmage. 30 point explosions from both WR/RB Odell and RB Cook were responsible for the excellent performance. Odell would easily slide into being the best RB on GM August's Don't Even Schmatter. GM Grafton will hope his team's strong scrimmage will set them up for success in their upcoming matchup against the Nihilists where he will certainly have his RB weapons on full display, just to be nice and demonstrate how the RB position works to GM August. 

BREAKING NEWS:

2 trades were finalized yesterday evening in quick succession after a trade drought to start the season. GM Ian and GM David put ink to paper to kick things off, exchanging top RBs while GM Michael and GM Connor were the next domino to fall as they quickly responded with a trade of their own, swapping top WRs. With reactions still to come from around the league, the potential for a quarter season trade frenzy is on the horizon as other teams get sprung into action, wanting to avoid getting left behind while others are improving. Below is our full breakdown of each trade.

Trade Talks: Full breakdowns and analysis of the breaking trades that have been finalized this week!

Top 2 Not 2 and Belichick Yo Self exchange RB1s and supporting WRs to restructure depth. 

• Top 2 Not 2 and GM Ian acquire: RB Sanders and WR Thielen
• Belichick Yo Self and GM David acquire: RB Henry, WR Watkins, and TE Schultz

Desperate for a viable supporting WR to work in tandem with WR Evans, GM Ian gets his wish with a solid WR Thielen, whose high target share will immediately improve both the consistency and upside to the WR position on the Two Timers. While giving away star RB Henry is sure to be a big loss going forward, RB Sanders should aim to fill most, if not all, of the gap left behind by the bruising runner. Meanwhile GM David gets his guy RB Henry back on the Yo Selfs roster, who had been a staple to the Belichick Yo Self brand, leading the squad to their first ever championship 2 seasons ago. This addition immediately makes GM David the manager of the greatest RB room in the MFFL as he looks fully committed to the run game, making the Cleveland Browns look like an Air Raid offense. The WR Watkins acquisition is an interesting addition, as he will most likely serve as a stash option for the coming bye weeks while TE Schultz will immediately compete for the starting role as previous starter TE Henry has disappointed in the recent weeks. However, with both TEs having the same bye week 10, GM David's work at the TE position is certainly not finished just yet for the season. The key addition for GM David is certainly the RB upgrade with RB Henry, who has already served his bye week during last week's set of games. This will give GM David an extra game with his RB, giving the edge of this trade to GM David on paper, despite being an overall evenly sided transaction. GM Ian fulfills a much needed supporting WR role while returning value for an elite RB with another high upside player, where the Trade Grade from MFFL is a B+ for both sides, with both sides appearing to have "won" the deal based on their team needs. Needless to say however, the performances from RBs Henry and Sanders will be closely monitored going forward as managers from around the league inevitably compare their production. 

Romanian RAPOs and DTDB Irish Assassins swap top WRs, aim at roster construction for the coming weeks.

• Romanian RAPOs and GM Michael acquire: WR Cooper, QB Stafford, and WR Slayton
• DTDB Irish Assassins and GM Connor acquire: WRs Julio, Brown, and Aiyuk

Team needs based on record was the tale of the tape in this trade as top WRs with different immediate outlooks were exchanged in hopes of being a better fit at their new teams. The 4-0 Leprechauns, after suffering an injury to RB Chubb are in an excellent position to begin looking long term at a playoff run, focusing on building up strength for the second half of the season. This makes the WR Julio acquisition an excellent add as he also recovers from a hamstring injury. GM Connor is able to stash Julio for his elite upside in the later weeks while cashing in on the immediate production that WR Cooper promises. Furthermore, the double supporting WRs provide much needed depth for options at the WR2 and FLEX positions, the one spot that could possibly viewed as a potential weakness to the Leprechaun team. Meanwhile, GM Michael and the RAPOs sitting at 2-2 are able to receive a healthy WR Cooper on a league leading offense as they prepare to run through the gauntlet, aiming to edge out the 7 other 2-2 teams. GM Michael was also able to cash in on the supreme depth on the RAPO roster for a viable QB Stafford, hopefully finally finding an answer to the QB Question that has been a major weakness for the offense. Both teams are able to fill weaknesses on their rosters while also exchanging elite WRs that better suit their immediate plans, making cause for another "win-win" trade designation while the health and production of WRs Julio and Cooper will also be closely compared. An A- grade for both trade partners is awarded here for directly filling team needs while also making strategic roster construction improvements:  stability and immediate production for GM Michael and high upside playoff potential for GM Connor. 

Weekly Awards:

• Oh Boy! Play of the Week:

GM Brody and GM Kelly share the Oh Boy! award for their respective Week 3 and Week 4 spot starts. GM Brody, in full RB panic mode, picked up RB Burkhead on Saturday night to start him the next morning. After only eclipsing 3 TDs on a season once in his 7 year career, Burkhead got 3 in a single game the other week, resulting in a crucial 31 point performance that led the way for a slim Scoregasms victory. Meanwhile, GM Kelly, after leaving rookie WR Lamb on the bench in previous weeks, started the year 1 stud in a clinical victory with 21 points, the best game of his young career.

• Murphy Mixup:

GM David doubled down with this award, leaving 2 star RBs on the bench in week 4. Both RB Mixon and RB Hunt were stuck on the sidelines, along with their combined 60 points from 40 and 20 respectively. Starting in place of the star RBs was RB Henderson who massively underachieved with only a 6 point performance, losing work to RB Malcolm Brown in both the rushing and receiving game. Luckily for GM David, the Yo Self's were still able to squeak by with a victory, although one that was much, much closer than it should have been. Start your Studs. 

• WTF Waiver Wire:

With all the injuries that have happened to star players early this season, the waiver wire has been a feeding frenzy with already $362 of FAAB being spent across the league. So far much of that spending has gone towards replacement RBs that have seen, to put it lightly, mixed results. One success story however has been RB Mike Davis who was picked up by GM Connor and DTDB Irish Assassins for $27 after the injury to starting RB McCaffrey. RB Davis has since put up back to back double digit performances and is receiving nearly the full CMC workload, which should continue up until CMC's eventual return. Now with a RB injury of his own, GM Connor already has a solid replacement for star RB Chubb in his lineup as he aims to continue off his strong undefeated start. 

• Crackhead of the Week:

The blind bidding system of the FAAB system is certainly an exciting and suspenseful weekly engagement for all who participate. Staring at your bid for that top waiver wire add, wondering if it will be enough to secure the acquisition, is easily the most uncertain any manager can be throughout the season. It's not unheard of for some managers to alter their bids up, back down, up again, up even higher, back down to the original bid, and then up once more to finish when trying to gauge how much value other managers will place on the waiver player. A perfect example of this was the other week's claim of TE Mike Gesicki, who was coming off a fantastic 26 point performance. GM Darren, in need of a short term TE play to replace a sidelined TE Kittle, teetered on his bid, even reaching out to other managers for advice on what to bid. After what could only have been many hours of tilt bidding, GM Darren triumphantly secured his new TE, for $26, beating out the intense competition consisting of GM August, who had bid $2. Congrats on the now backup TE, Darren!

• Defensive Coordinator of the Week:

GM Michael ran a Goal-Line Defensive scheme against Action Jackson and GM Kelly in the RAPOs week 3 victory. The Goal Line defense shut down the touchdown dependent performances from the Jackies, resulting in an over 11 point deduction, for nearly 12% of the total points from GM Kelly's Jackies that week. Stay tuned for more Defensive Scheme Analysis coming soon!

As we look into the approaching week 5 matchups, a few things will certainly be shining into view in the spotlight, particularly the new trade acquisitions that will be playing their first games with their new teams. Furthermore, there will be a focus on lineup shuffles as teams adapt to the first set of official bye weeks with the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers having the week off, like GM Grafton did this past week. In terms of matchups, one to look out for is the lower table battle between GM Kelly and Action Jackson (2-2) vs GM Dominic and Covid's Warriors (0-4) which constitutes the Wildcat Matchup of hte Week for week 5. Both teams are in need of a victory to keep pace with the rest of the pack, while GM Dominic is already desperate for a notch in the win column and finally get his season properly underway. The battle between star WRs Lockett and Lamb for the Jackies and Diggs and Hopkins for the Warriors will surely be the focus of the matchup this weekend as each WR is facing what appears to be a salivating matchup against week secondaries. However, a sneaky x factor in this matchup could be RB David Johnson for the Warriors that will be facing the barely there Jaguars run defense that was just maimed by a Mixon marathon of TDs. The potential return of WR Michael Thomas in a Monday Night shootout could also create an epic Monday Night comeback opportunity for the Warriors to get their first victory, putting pressure on Jackie RB Jones II to get off to a big lead on Thursday Night, and star RB Elliott to carry that lead into the late afternoon on Sunday. Of course, it would be foolish to count out Action Jackson himself from having a major impact in the outcome of this matchup as he will face off against Warriors' QB Burrow, providing yet another interesting position matchup to keep an eye on throughout the weekend. 

That will wrap up the Weekly Wrap-Up as we put week 4 in a box behind us and move on towards week 5 and beyond. With now a quarter of the NFL season in the books the grind of the season will really start to set in for teams around the MFFL as rosters get set to cement their spots on the upper ranks of the standings. We at MFFL studios are certainly glad to be back in action and are extremely excited for more content moving forward. Until then, stay awesome!