Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Only 79 days left until kickoff of the 2018-19 NFL season. This year we had two managers leave our fantasy league. Thanks to Jim for playing with us the last 10 years and Austin for the last 5! You guys were great additions to the league and you will be missed.

Since we have some new members, I thought I’d introduce everyone:

• Andy lives near Green Lake and his dog has more Instagram followers than I do.
• Dad is one of my parental units. He lives in Indiana and has three tractors.
• Logan is my brother-in-law (Tyla’s brother). He started off pretty bad in the league but somehow seems to be winning too much lately. He lives in Kirkland.
• Luke is my brother-in-law (my sister’s husband.) He lives in Toledo and just built a fence.
• Nick currently inhabits half of my office at work. We say that together we make a pretty average software developer. He lives in Woodinville.
• Tim is my brother-in-law’s (Luke’s) brother. He was also my roommate for a few years.  He lives in Monroe.
• Tyler lives all the way across the cul-de-sac from me. He has a bigger garden than me and one more MG than I do.

Now that you’ve all been introduced, let’s refresh our memories of the standings for the last 10 seasons.

And if you take that chart and calculate average finish, here’s what you get:

The first piece of business is picking a date for our draft. We’ll do a live draft party at my house again, but as always, you’re welcome to autodraft if you prefer. I don’t think there’s much correlation between the people that the draft method you prefer and your finishing position in the league so don’t sweat it. Watch your email for a link to a poll for picking the draft date/time. You don’t want to miss out on your chance to pick Kaepernick. I mean, surely some team will pick him up before the start of the season, right?

As the announcer of the Seahawks/Cowboys game said, “If the Seahawks win this, it will be the worst offensive performance I’ve ever seen from a winning team.” Now clearly he hadn’t seen some of the games early in the season, but yes, the Seahawks offense was a hot mess. And hey, their postseason hopes are still alive by a thin margin.

Of the top four teams in our league, only one team broke 100 and that was Logan. Congrats on another first place trophy! Logan’s third round draft pick, Todd Gurley, really paid off in the playoffs with 88.1 points. Here are the final standings;

1. Logan
2. Ben
3. Luke
4. Austin
5. Andy
6. Dad
7. Tim
8. Jim

At the beginning of the season, I heard that some people might not be too interested in continuing this. I really appreciate everyone keeping their roster full! If you want out, it’s completely fine. Let’s do this as an opt-in situation. If you want to play next year, send me a private message/email/text by the Super Bowl. That will give me plenty of time to fill any empty team slots before the next season starts.

I’ll try to scrounge up some more overall season stats in a week or two, but for now, here are the weekly stats.

Let’s just skip talking about the Seahawks this week like I skipped watching most of the second half.

Our league was much more exciting. Luke went into the playoffs with the #1 spot and lost to the yahoo who limped backwards into the playoffs (me). And in #2 vs #3 game, Logan put up the highest score of the season to beat Austin. The consolation bracket didn’t disappoint either as Dad and Jim posted the closest game of the season. Next week will wrap up our season as Logan and I battle it out for first place. This feels kind of like a David vs Goliath thing. It’s more than a little intimidating to head into the championship game against the guy who just put up 188 points! Just to put that number into perspective, Logan played against the second highest scorer this week and still almost set the season record for the biggest blowout!

Also of note, week 15 was the highest total league score that we’ve put together this season. We also had 5 people within less than 8 points of each other.

Power rankings for week 15:

1. Logan (+3)
2. Ben (-1)
3. Luke (-1)
4. Austin (-1)

On to the weekly awards…

The Jaguars are good? Well this is certainly weird. It was also weird to see our QB throw three interceptions in one game. Honestly it’s amazing he doesn’t throw more with all the crazy scrambling throws that he makes. The most disappointing part of the game was the last 45 seconds when the Seahawks, led by Michael Bennett, showed their lack of anything resembling sportsmanship. Can we please trade away Bennett? I’m done with him. I’m also feeling like it’s time for Blair Walsh to go. He’s 7 of his last 13 attempts. Is this one of those things that’s just stuck in his head? The kicks only get more intense from here on out. Can he handle it?

In our league, Luke beat out Austin in a battle for top seed in the playoffs. Logan also won so he ends up in the second seed as Austin falls to third. Logan lost Carson Wentz to an injury though. With no QB on his bench, who will he pick up for the playoffs? And the final spot in the playoffs goes to… me! The implausible scenario that I mentioned two weeks ago played out. Dad lost both games and I won both games with just enough points to get the tiebreaker. I’m predicting coal in my stocking.

So we’ll kick off the playoffs with Luke vs me and Logan vs Austin. The consolation bracket will be Dad vs Jim and Andy vs Tim.

At the end of the season, I’m going to be sending around an email asking who wants to be in the league next year. I got the impression at the start of this season that a few of you weren’t too keen on playing but kind of went with it since Yahoo auto-added you. I really appreciate everyone sticking with it, but I also don’t want you to feel trapped in this forever. It would be a blast to have everyone back, but if you want out, it’s fine. I’d just like to have the offseason to figure out if we need to find some new players, etc. So there’s nothing to do at this point, but please think about it over the next couple weeks.

Power rankings for week 15:

1. Ben (+4)
2. Luke (+2)
3. Austin (-2)
4. Logan (-2)

On to the weekly awards…

I fully admit that I didn’t think the Seahawks would stand a chance against the red hot Eagles. With their decimated defense and lack of an offensive line, I expected a blowout. Boy was I pleasantly surprised? Well I was surprised when it was over… for the entire game I kept trying to figure out how they were going to end up losing. But this was a really solid game. The Seahawks are great in December so who knows. Maybe they’ll hold on to a wild card spot?

Our league was a surprise as well with three of the top four teams losing. Tim beat Luke in a brother v. brother battle and Jim toppled Dad. Jim’s win was actually key for the playoff picture. Austin, Luke and Logan are already locked in, but Dad needed to win to guarantee a playoff spot. Now it gets interesting as Dad faces off against Logan. Here’s how the fourth spot can play out:

• Dad wins. He’s into the playoffs.
• Dad loses and I win. If I score 8 more points than Dad, I win the tiebreaker and I’m in the playoffs. Otherwise Dad is in.
  • Technically the same is true if Dad loses and Andy wins by he’d need ~80 more points than Dad and that seems unlikely.

Whether you’re in the playoffs already or have been eliminated, please keep those rosters full so that we can have a fair fight. It’s down to the wire!

Power rankings for week 14:

1. Austin
2. Logan (+1)
3. Dad (+1)
4. Luke (-2)

On to the weekly awards…

Thankfully the Seahawks won in San Francisco. I was pretty nervous going into the game and even after the first quarter, but by the end it was a comfortable win. I didn’t realize this, but the 49ers secondary is even more beat up than the Seahawks. If you haven’t seen the Bobby Wagner interception, it’s worth a look. The video is in this article and the interception happens around the 1:15 mark. The 49ers receiver caught the ball and then Bobby Wagner took possession of it on the way to the ground.

In our league, Luke, Logan and Austin all won easily and Luke secured a place in the playoffs. I assume that Logan and Austin are pretty much in barring a crazy scenario. The fourth place is the one that is up for grabs. Dad has it now but Andy has a good shot at it. I would have to win out and have Dad lose twice for me to make it in. We’ll know how it shakes out in two weeks.

Power rankings for week 13:

1. Austin (+1)
2. Luke (+2)
3. Logan
4. Dad (-3)

On to the weekly awards…

See that picture? Check out the video. It’s impressive.

Challenge for the week: Name three starting players on the Seahawks defense who aren’t injured. I bet that’s a tough one for a lot of people. Most of the big names are injured. With that in mind, the Monday Night game went a lot better than I expected. Don’t buy into the “they lost because of the fake field goal” thing. You can’t say how the game would have played out if they had the extra three points there. Now the missed field goal by Walsh? Yeah, that one hurt. A lot. Again. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets booted. (Pun intended.) I was happy to see a lot fewer penalties though, and the new running back, Mike Davis, showed a lot of promise… but then he went out with a groin injury. I wouldn’t put money on them making the playoffs, but maybe they will at least be able to keep the rest of the season interesting. Then we’ll get into the offseason where things will get really interesting. I think it’s time to start trading away some big names before they lose all their value and start some rebuilding. Otherwise the Seahawks are going to fade off into oblivion for 10 years while they keep the gang together and slowly get worse every season.

In our league, three of the top four teams won to add some distance between themselves and the bottom four teams. I somehow squeezed out a win over Logan and I can’t help gloating just a little because I did it with negative points from my QB. Yay? Dad is in fourth place and has a two game lead over me in fifth place. It’s going to be difficult for any of us in the bottom four to make it into the playoffs with only 3 games remaining, but crazier things have happened. Next week Austin and Dad play each other so one of them will lose and if Andy or I win, that will reduce the margin between fourth and fifth place to one game. Please keep those rosters full as we come down to the final stretch!

Power rankings for week 12:

1. Dad (+3) (Dad has gone from 8th in the power rankings to 1st in just two weeks!)
2. Austin
3. Logan (-2)
4. Luke (+1)

On to the weekly awards…

The Seahawks tried to penalty their way to another loss but still won with another safety and scrambling QB prowess. Maybe instead of penalties they could just spot the other team a touchdown or two? I could be wrong but I think they had 7 penalties that resulted in first downs including four in one drive. What’s the point of even playing defense if you’re just going to give away freebies? They did get the win but there were 12 injuries including a season ending injury for Sherman and Kam Chancellor also carted off the field. Earl Thomas was already on the bench. So now we have a decimated defense, still no offensive line, and more penalties and penalty yardage than any other NFL team. Remember when I said the Seahawks were heading into an easier section of their schedule? That was probably wrong.

In our league, wins for Logan and Luke made them feel pretty good about their playoff chances. Austin and Dad have 3rd and 4th place to themselves. The league is starting to spread out a bit and it’s getting harder for the 4 of us on the bottom to figure out a scenario that might land us in the playoffs. Thank you to everyone for keeping your rosters full!

Power rankings for week 11:

1. Logan
2. Austin (+1)
3. Andy (+2)
4. Dad (+4)

On to the weekly awards…

The Seahawks had another close game, but in the end the penalties. missed field goals and broken plays because of the offensive line were too much to overcome. It has to be painful as a field goal kicker when you miss THREE field goals and your team loses by three points. Just making ONE of them could have sent them to overtime.

Our league continues to be a free-for-all. Last week, Luke had the highest team score and Andy had the lowest. This week they flipped. Tim had the second highest score in the league hinting that maybe 8th place isn’t where he will end up. With 5 games left until the playoffs are set, everyone still has a chance. Logan and Luke are still looking good with their good records and high point totals.

Deshaun Watson was the second highest scoring player in our league up until his season ending injury. Let’s take a minute to review his progress through our league:

• Logan had him for less than 14 hours on October 4.
• He was on Logan’s team again for one week in mid October..
• He was on my time for a week at the end of October.

He played a total of one week in our league! I had finally made the obvious decision to start him regularly and I even picked up his favorite target (Will Fuller), and then… bam. Out for the season. I think we all deserve a face palm for missing out on all those points up until his injury.

Power rankings for week 10:

1. Logan (+1)
2. Luke (-1)
3. Austin (+1)
4. Tim (+3)

On to the weekly awards…

If you take away Russell Wilson’s 30 yards of rushing, the Seahawks had 3 yards of rushing on 17 attempts. The defense allowed 544 yards of offense and gave up 38 points. Wilson also had an interception. And yet, somehow the Seahawks still got the win. The offense had some great long plays and the three picks by the defense helped as well. That game was the definition of a shootout and it was fun to see them win a nerve wracking game, but the game left me with a lot of “uh oh” feelings. A lot of stuff went wrong. Hopefully it can be corrected. Seattle has a good schedule for the next few weeks so we’ll see what they can do against some weaker/average teams.

It was painful watching the Seahawks game and knowing that while I picked up Deshaun Watson, I had him on my bench. He outscored my starting QB by 33 points, but I still picked up the win. In a much more important game, Luke defeated Dad and now has sole possession of first place. Looking at total points scored this season, Luke and Logan are far ahead of the pack. Dad, Austin and I are kind of the next clump. That’s 5 teams and there are only five spots so we’ll see how it shakes out. The other three guys could still make a run for it as well. We have six games left until the playoff roster is set. Next week’s primetime matchup is Luke (#1) vs Logan (#2).

Power rankings for week 9:

1. Luke (+2)
2. Logan (-1)
3. Dad (+1)
4. Austin (-2)

On to the weekly awards…