Finding Paydirt - Week 1 Results
After a wild Week 1 across the NFL, I am back to sort out the mess, talk about touchdowns, and update you with our first leaderboard of the season. Today, I will unveil our first leaderboard and provide a few of my personal takeaways from the week hoping to drum up some football discourse.
For the Week 1 article, click here.
For the contest details for 2019, click here.
To follow me on Twitter — please, please, pretty please — click here.
Leaderboard (sortable by column)
| Player | Total | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| joeycis | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| sochoice | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gillik9486 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| bdub02 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| cfsmith5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| karma_1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| hautalak | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| hankmardukas | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| KenFolk1269 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| djwagner92 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| kdubs81 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| zimman78 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| timtime33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| shanekern03 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dooks | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IrishCarBomb9 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| bejj | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Drew1up | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| markymark13 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| birdmaster6813 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MZA | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Indycrocodile | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| jmwins | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| PRBill1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kylerusher | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| schmidtty88 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| dhul | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1010mg | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tbn55 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| bwallace03 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ropediddy | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Inferno | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DJESQUIRE | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BroLantis | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TheDog15 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Dalvin Cook certainly did not disappoint as one of the more popular selections in Week 1 — scoring two touchdowns in a lopsided Minnesota victory. Chris Carson, also popular, scored two touchdowns of his own. The tight end position was a mess with only Delanie Walker doing anything memorable for a few participants. The big get this week was combining Sammy Watkins or Austin Ekeler with one of the two-touchdown performers.
Nonetheless, touchdowns were up this week. I counted 66 touchdowns on the week with five being excluded because of our “cut list.” Ropediddy, a frequent participant in all of the contests I operate, had himself a huge day with six touchdowns. Just behind, we saw a couple of five-touchdown days and an absolute mass of three and four-touchdown performances. My guess is that will adjust a bit going forward but who knows with the league rules.
Week 1 Takeaways
Antonio Brown was absolutely the story of Week 1 — somehow weasling his way out of a contract with the Raiders with the most audacious behavior. I found the funniest part of the entire situation to be the immediate social media commentary following the release mentioning that Brown would land with the Patriots and it did not even take a day to materialize. The social media and YouTube activity of Brown is quite comical — albeit staged — and we can just go ahead and ink in another playoff run for the Patriots. Not only does this seem to happen every season but the three teams in their division are perennial disasters. Yikes.
Touchdown vultures seemed to be out in force on Sunday with the likes of Malcolm Brown, Dontrell Hilliard, and Wayne Gallman stealing fantasy points away from owners in six-point increments. Hilliard was by far the most disappointing as the second-year back only amassed one carry. That carry, of course, was inside the five-yard line. Seasonal owners of Saquon Barkley could be in for a long season if the Giants cannot content as Wayne Gallman seemed to be playing the mop-up role in Week 1.
So the Raiders are already a disaster, trade for Antonio Brown, release him, and people are already projecting when Jon Gruden will get axed. Logically, the Raiders upset the three-point favored Denver Broncos to tilt my pants off as one of the lone bets I made on the weekend.
I am going to beat this drum a lot this season but… why is Mike Tomlin considered a top coach in the NFL? A leader of men? Holds players accountable? Tomlin’s team — specifically defense — looked completely unprepared for Sunday night against a coach he has plenty of experience against. At some point, there is going to be a really good set of YouTube videos highlighting all of the Mike Tomlin quotes that really mean… nothing. Tomlin has to be on the hot seat this year. He just needs to be.
That’s all for Week 1. I will be back on Friday for the Week 2 article with a few more touchdown calls. Enjoy Thursday Night Football and good luck with any of your wagering endeavors from now until Friday. Until then, have a great week.