Wisconsin Rapids Bro League
Week One
Our Seventh Official Season of blaming Cole Walters for Certified Lover Boy
Current Standings (with regular season won-loss streaks)
Steven Nett Division
Yeezy Taught Me (Nathaniel Hoefs) 1-0 W1
Scott's Many Endeavors (Nick Zurawski) 1-0 W1
Team ChowHounds (Darrin Aschebrook) 1-0 W2
Todd's Plan (Andy Todd) 0-1 L2
Tanner Glaza Division
Tax Paying Homeowner (Alec Swanson) 1-0 W1
Take Mahomes Country Roads (Ryan Dougherty) 0-1 L1
SNEEN MACHINE (Tyler Sneen) 0-1 L1
Colieveland 96ers (Cole Walters) 0-1 L1
Week One Final Scores
HOEFS defeats RYAN 180.06-124.88
ALEC defeats SNEEN 130.18-111.56
NICK defeats ANDY 142.7-123.66
DARRIN defeats COLE 124.42-70.4
Heroes of the Week: WR Amari Cooper (38.9), WR Tyreek Hill (37.1), QB Kyler Murray (33.56)
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Hero of the Week: WR Amari Cooper (Take Mahomes Country Roads)
Waiver Wonders: TE Rob Gronkowski (29), QB Jared Goff (28.92), QB Jalen Hurts (28.76)
What-if of the Week: Starting WR Tyler Lockett (26.0) over WR Mike Evans (5.4) would have given Andy a 1.56-point deficit win over Nick after QB Lamar Jackson's lost fumble cost him 2 points in overtime on Monday Night Football.
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| ESPN The weekly internal debate I will have between Lockett (above) and Evans is going exactly as expected. |
Upcoming Week 2 Match-ups & NFL Schedule (in CT)
Alec v. Andy
Sneen v. Nick
Ryan v. Cole
Darrin v. Hoefs
Thursday Night Football: NY Giants @ Washington 7:20 PM
Sunday NOON: Cincinnati @ Chicago
Houston @ Cleveland
LA Rams @ Indianapolis
Buffalo @ Miami
New England @ NY Jets
San Francisco @ Philadelphia
Las Vegas @ Pittsburgh
New Orleans @ Carolina
Denver @ Jacksonville
3:05 PM: Minnesota @ Arizona
Atlanta @ Tampa Bay
3:25 PM: Dallas @ LA Chargers
Tennessee @ Seattle
Sunday Night Football: Kansas City @ Baltimore
Monday Night Football: Detroit @ Green Bay
Bro...
Overreactions here! Get your overreactions here! Hot off the presses! Week one of the NFL season sees a few shocking results and nine months of fantasy football draft prep and expectations get thrown out the window based on 60 minutes of in-game action. 2021 is no different. Though COVID is far from over, it was simultaneously refreshing and odd to see stadiums return to their full capacity. Even more bizarre was to hear and see many green open seats at this past weekend's Packers-Saints game. Moved to neutral Jacksonville as a result of Hurricane Ida, this game might just be THE example of week one overreaction case studies from here on out. The Packers put up a total dud of a performance despite nearly perfect health (LT David Bakhtiari is still recovering from his torn ACL) while New Orleans opened up their post-Drew Brees era with a can of whoop ass in Florida, winning 38-3 without WR Michael Thomas, DL David Onyemata and CB Bradley Roby. How the fantasy football values of people like Aaron Jones, Aaron Rodgers and whoever Juwan Johnson is are tilted going into week two should be fascinating.
Time will tell if LASIK Jameis is the greatest redemption story of the 2021 season.
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| The Falcons' horrible week one can be perfectly summarized by this photo of OL Jalen Mayfield (who received a 1.4/100 pass-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus for this game) looking at his QB on the ground. |
The 2021 Wisconsin Rapids Bro League Draft returned to it's original headquarters, the Buffalo Wild Wings of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them and our waitress for having the draft supplies ready for us and for not screwing me out of a fried pickle order that I never made. It was a wonderful time spent with wonderful people, even if league personnel underwent a change. Sadly after six official seasons and two championship runs, Scott Aschebrook is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the Bro League so that he can party it up with Tanner Glaza across the United States. He also got married so congratulations? I wasn't invited so it's not really my place to congratulate him when I've already had to do that after multiple fantasy football seasons while resisting the urge to vomit. This move actually helps the Bro League cut back down to eight teams after last season's addition of Nathaniel Hoefs made it difficult to track who exactly was winning and losing when the team on bye needed to finish in the top 4 for points in a given week in order to accrue a win. At the draft table, we replaced Scott with our very own draft expert ala Mel Kiper Jr. in a work friend of Darrin's that seemed oddly biased as he conspired with Thee ChowHounds' ownership on a pick-by-pick basis. Considering Darrin has yet to win anything in this league and the guy was a nice, knowledgeable sports fan and a welcome addition to our draft table, we'll allow it.
The first week of WRBL action for 2021 saw Thee ChowHounds take advantage of rival Cole Walters' absolute bust of a lineup, trouncing the 96ers 124.42-70.4. Look at the positives Cole, Tyler Bass is tied for the league-lead in kicker points! Unlike THEE Ohio State (who lost to the Oregon Ducks on Saturday), THEE ChowHounds are now looking to make this type of win the expectation going forward as he takes on Nathan in week two. Nathan ended up dropping a massive 109.66 points MORE than Cole and defeated this week's fourth-highest scorer Ryan by this week's largest margin between opponents. Unlike Cole having no skill players live up to their expectations, Hoefs got something big out of everyone even without Clyde Edwards-Helaire still not getting proper goal-line work. Darrin is banking on Nathan's team being too exhausted to put up a repeat performance while Ryan looks to avoid 0-2 at the hands of a rebounding 96er squad.
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| Harry How/Getty Images Cole's team received no help from WR Brandon Aiyuk's 0 targets due to a hamstring issue flaring up pregame against the Lions. |
I never go into re-draft leagues (or in this case, leagues with one keeper or fewer) with any type of strategy and this season was no different as I let the strategy come to me with each pick. Once I kept RB Antonio Gibson, I decided to jump on the opportunity to draft a top-tier Tight End (Travis Kelce) as all the elite RBs were either kept or drafted by pick #5. After "Justin" Ekeler went, I fell out of love with the running backs available and decided to pull a Scott Aschebrook in honor of our fallen comrade and went batshit insane for wide receivers, taking five star wideouts along with the injured Michael Thomas before even bothering to look for a backfield mate for Gibson. That strategy looked more like "strategery" this weekend as I decided to play the Mike Evans and Tyler Lockett game, where fantasy owners have to guess which weeks they'll disappear and which three games they score multiple touchdowns and sure enough, I chose incorrectly. Mike Evans had three catches versus Dallas's lackluster defense and zero touchdowns in my lineup while Lockett put up a cool 4-100-2 line against Indy's maybe overhyped defense(?) on my bench. That infraction against my lineup made ALL of the difference once Lamar Jackson took a knee to send the Ravens-Raiders Monday Night game into overtime and then fumbled away Baltimore's one chance to win in overtime. If Lockett were in instead of Evans, I still would have lost the lead going into that extra quarter of football, ONLY TO THEN HAVE PULLED OFF THE MOST INSANE COMEBACK OF 2021 before the season has even really begun. I'll be looking to redeem myself against Alec and Nick will look to further bury 2020 WRBL Champ Tyler Sneen after his 0-1 start. Sneen's Machine needed some WD40 on Monday night with a combined 34-point showing out of TE Mark Andrews, K Justin Tucker and the Ravens defense. Alas, the Ravens were all out of stock and the machine still seems a bit rusty from a potential championship hangover. Alec's NFL team might not know what they're doing but he certainly did, taking a risk by starting QB Joe Burrow in an 8-team league that paid off with the victory over Sneen.
Week two is upon us as the picture we painted of the 2021 NFL season these past six-to-nine months only further muddies itself. For example, injuries are unpredictable and we already have a new starting quarterback on Thursday Night Football as a result of Ryan Fitzpatrick's hip subluxation (hello, Taylor Heinicke). Another injury that will change things more in fantasy than for the NFL team is RB Raheem Mostert going to the IR for 8 weeks for the 49ers. Cole Walters and San Fran will both need to adjust with whomever they see fit and the Eagles will look to exploit San Fran's other weakness (Cornerback) thanks to another injury (Jason Verrett's torn ACL). Seattle's offense seemed crisper and more mobile in their first game with new coordinator Shane Waldron than they ever did with Brian Schottenheimer, which is saying something because Russell Wilson was an MVP candidate for the first eight games last season. They'll look to continue their hot streak against the worrisome 0-1 Titans later on Sunday. Sunday night sees an epic matchup between MVP candidates as the Ravens look to bounce back against the Chiefs and Mahomes. There should be fantasy points and Drew Brees hair follicles' aplenty in that one. Then on Monday night, the Packers look to silence the overreactors from the nation's take factories with a (hopefully, for their sake) easy win against Detroit. I'm sure Peyton and Eli will keep us entertained in case of a blowout. Now, we just need to sell Disney on the Bro League Cast, coming soon to ESPN8: The Ocho.
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| When the Packers don't do the whole "play like your QB is a Hall of Famer" thing... |
Scoring Leaders
QB
Kyler Murray 33.56 (Hoefs)
Patrick Mahomes 33.28 (Ryan)
Tom Brady 27.16 (Sneen)
Russell Wilson 27.06 (Andy)
Joe Burrow 18.64 (Alec)
Lamar Jackson 18 (Nick)
Josh Allen 17.2 (Cole)
Aaron Rodgers 1.32 (Darrin)
RB
Christian McCaffrey 27.7 (Hoefs)
Joe Mixon 25 (Nick)
Nick Chubb 22.1 (Ryan)
Dalvin Cook 20.4 (Sneen)
David Montgomery 18.8 (Alec)
Alvin Kamara 18.1 (Darrin)
Jonathan Taylor 17.6 (Alec)
Miles Sanders 17.3 (Nick)
Josh Jacobs 17 (Darrin)
Antonio Gibson 11.8 (Andy)
Austin Ekeler 11.7 (Sneen)
Damien Harris 11.7 (Andy)
Derrick Henry 10.7 (Darrin)
Clyde Edwards-Helaire 10.2 (Hoefs)
James Robinson 8.4 (Ryan)
Ezekiel Elliott 5.9 (Nick)
Najee Harris 5.9 (Cole)
Aaron Jones 4.2 (Ryan)
Saquon Barkley 3.7 (Cole)
Raheem Mostert 2 (Cole)
WR
Amari Cooper 38.9 (Ryan)
Tyreek Hill 37.1 (Nick)
Adam Thielen 30.2 (Darrin)
DeAndre Hopkins 26.3 (Darrin)
Cooper Kupp 23.8 (Hoefs)
CeeDee Lamb 23.4 (Hoefs)
Keenan Allen 19 (Andy)
DK Metcalf 16 (Alec)
Stefon Diggs 15.9 (Hoefs)
D.J. Moore 15.4 (Sneen)
A.J. Brown 14.9 (Alec)
Justin Jefferson 12.54 (Alec)
Robert Woods 12.4 (Sneen)
Davante Adams 10.6 (Cole)
Terry McLaurin 10.2 (Nick)
Calvin Ridley 10.1 (Andy)
Allen Robinson 9.5 (Sneen)
Julio Jones 5.9 (Ryan)
Mike Evans 5.4 (Andy)
TE
Darren Waller 26.5 (Hoefs)
T.J. Hockenson 25.7 (Alec)
Travis Kelce 25.6 (Andy)
Noah Fant 12.2 (Nick)
Logan Thomas 12 (Cole)
George Kittle 9.8 (Darrin)
Kyle Pitts 7.1 (Ryan)
Mark Andrews 5 (Sneen)
K
Tyler Bass 11 (Cole)
Justin Tucker 11 (Sneen)
Harrison Butker 10 (Darrin)
Greg Zuerlein 10 (Nick)
Brandon McManus 9 (Alec)
Younghoe Koo 6 (Hoefs)
Jason Sanders 6 (Andy)
Josh Lambo 2 (Ryan)
DF
Pittsburgh Steelers 13 (Hoefs)
Los Angeles Rams 8 (Cole)
Denver Broncos 7 (Andy)
San Francisco 49ers 7 (Nick)
Indianapolis Colts 3 (Ryan)
Washington Football Team 1 (Darrin)
Baltimore Ravens -1 (Sneen)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers -3 (Alec)
Hypothetical Standings (Top 4 scorers win, bottom 4 lose)
Yeezy Taught Me 1-0
Scott's Many Endeavors 1-0
Tax Paying Homeowner 1-0
Take Mahomes Country Roads 1-0
Team ChowHounds 0-1
Todd's Plan 0-1
SNEEN MACHINE 0-1
Colieveland 96ers 0-1
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