Stuff Happened - Week 5 Edition

by Luke Louison (GiantBallofOil) Last Updated 2016-10-16 06:05:50

“So, how was the week?”

That about sums it up, right? Well, kinda.

You see, there are numerous things that were down about this week, as I’ll get to below. Unlike sports betting though, where the house can just win a week, and everyone suffers. In daily fantasy, someone wins every week, by rule. Someone had to win the money. Someone had to win the seats. Also,

So, congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Noto, to Big T and all his giblets, and to the filmmaker that decides to make the odd couple comedy about DraftCheat & Seige’s Mom. Also, begrudgingly, congrats to Seige and Stevie for likely taking down the #TeamChalk vs #TeamWhateverTheyAreCallingThemselvesThisWeek Challenge and for evening the score at (1-1). Hitting on Marshall and Bennett and avoiding McKinnon was fine. Fading Antonio Brown and living to tell about it is the stuff of legends.

Stuff Happened, Week 5 Edition

Grout players abound in the Highest Scoring Line-up this week, and when that happens, it usually means that line-up will also be the Optimal Line-up. Four of the eight position players were in our purview, but only one of them could have read his name here, last week. That’s just one scoop in the Meh Sundae of Week 5, for me.

For the second consecutive week, the Highest Scoring Line-up put up 277-and-change. With no 50-point wide receiver or 40-point quarterback to pad the total, this week’s 277 was tallied with higher scoring RBs, more 30-point WRs, and our first 30-point TE of the season.

Ben Roethlisberger’s 33.20 was the high QB score for the week, but unlike last week where there was clear separation between the best and the rest, here we had three other signal callers over 30, as well (T. Brady, P. Rivers, M. Mariota).

In Week 4, no running backs had 26 points plus, but six were within 1.2 of that mark. Things went better for ball carriers in Week 5, as five had over 26 points, four of them on Sunday.

Side Note – I tweeted last week that the FanDuel Thursday – Monday slate was liberating. You just click in your line-up Thursday and check back Monday, to see how you’ve done. I have an addendum to that statement. When you don’t play David Johnson, and his 36.50 points (the top RB total for the week), while 34.1% of the Mini Rush does, it’s still liberating. You just don’t have to check back.

Beyond Johnson, Ezekiel Elliott was the only other running back in the 30s (35.1), but Tevin Coleman (29.3, $4,100), Jordan Howard (28.3, $5,200), and Theo Riddick (26.2, $4,900) all had outstanding days at much lower prices.

The wide receiver position out-scored the running back position, as it typically does, but this week, it was much closer. For instance, last week, while no backs surpassed 26, seven Sunday receivers alone achieved the feat. This week, there were only four wide-outs over 30, the four listed above, and below them were six receivers between 25 and 30, with four playing Sunday. That’s contrasted to two backs over 30 and three more between 25 and 30.

Now, can we talk about Martellus Bennett for a second? Not only did he put up the first tight end 30-point game of the season, but he is basically tight end currency manipulation, at this point. His achievements alone are buoying the stats-deficient position. Of the eight instances of a tight end getting the 3-point 100-yard bonus, seven were on the Millionaire Maker slate, and two of them were by Bennett. 25%! Also, there have been 53 total tight end scores this year, 49 on the Main Slate, and four of them were scored by Marty B, meaning he has 7.5% of all tight end scores to go with 25% of the 100-yard games.

As contrarian as it may be, Black Unicorns > White Unicorns.

Making a Millionaire

Thanks to one final, somewhat questionable, Randall Cobb reception, Jamal07 was able to take his only $20 entry and turn it into $1,000,000. ROI ME ASAP! He did it with only three of the nine players in the Optimal Line-up, but despite that low player total, he managed to put up 89% of the Optimal Line-up’s total points. That makes three times in five weeks where 89% of Optimal has been the million-dollar percentage.

Of the 30 points he was short of perfection, 16 were the difference between Elliott and his Gurley and 8 between Meredith/Cooper and his Cobb. The other six points were a point here, a point there, and the point that he just won a million dollars and doesn’t care.

Grout for a Shout

This is where the sad news really starts to escalate. I took Zach Ertz this week, at a price of $3,500. He had only 3 receptions on 3 targets, for 37 yards, despite running a route on 32 of Carson Wentz’s 36 dropbacks. JMToWin picked Quincy Enunwa, who was priced at $4,600 and who went 4-for-51 on 7 targets. The math:

Zach Ertz – 1.914 PT/$K
Quincy Enunwa – 1.978 PT/$K

Yep. Three more yards for Ertz or three less yards for Enunwa would have changed the outcome. I know, I know. Ifs and Buts. Candy and Oh Nuts, JM now leads the Challenge (3-2).

More meh: The picks stunk this week. You could also say the Grout player pool stunk, depending how much you believe in deflecting blame. Either way, see for yourself.

The least 2x picks, the third lowest 3x total, second lowest 4x total, and of the six > 5x Grout picks this week, they were simply two players each picked three times (Meredith/Coates). As Donald Trump would finish, if this was a tweet: Sad.

With that said, do you know what they are going to call Hillary Clinton on Friday, January 20th, 2017? President. That is, achievements don’t often note the competition you faced to get there. The same is true here in Groutland. So, Peaches13, Datperpdaron, and arpuchie, you did pick Cameron Meredith at the pebble minimum salary of $3,000, he did go for over 30.60 points, and you did win the Shout this week. Because it’s getting a little colder here in the fall, I don’t think it’s appropriate to subject DB to this weather in his bathing suit. I believe, though, that I have found a suitable replacement. Charlie Murphy, have at it.

dethdealers is still clinging to his lead. His DeAndre Washington pick didn’t kill him, but it allowed both JGroove5 and Peaches13, and their picks of Sammie Coates and Cameron Meredith respectively, to make up significant ground. SwaguarsFan fell out of qualification with only three picks on his ledger and the remaining order of daddywarbuttocks, ggman0831, and geoffoz held firm. We have over two-thirds of a season left, so it’s still anyone’s game. Just have to be the next to find that 10x PT/$K diamond in the rough!

In the year-to-date standings, there are only 26 people qualified, thanks to the “two-thirds” rule. With five weeks done, you have to have participated in four of them, to qualify. Next week though, when we hit week six, four entries will still be the qualification standard. That means all of the people on the second list, having entered 3 of 5 weeks, will qualify for the title, with a pick. Whether or not it’s any good? We’ll see soon.