Week 9 Re-cap: Pop, Lockett, Drop It

I love this time of the season when you can start to project how the rest of the season might pan out and envision your team’s path to the playoffs. My fantasy routine now includes checking in to see how my closest competitors’ teams are doing, not just my own. Navigating bye weeks, stealing wins, climbing your way out 3 game deficit to fill the last playoff spot. That’s what fantasy football is all about.

Games of the Week

Dictator League

Tony is a Bad Man? v. JohnMcG223

• Move over DJ, Aaron Jones, Tom Brady, and the Pats D…this is the Russell Wilson/DK Metcalf show. The two players scored enough points to take down John by themselves. Both Wilson and Metcalf are front-runners for regular-season MVP and Rookie of the Year respectively and their performance this week made a strong case. It was an easy win for Will in this league, but still an impressive game of the week with so many guys underperforming.

Dynasty League

Its ELKer Hunter SzN v. Keenan and Kelce

• Will got his wish. After weeks without a mention in the re-cap, he goes ahead and wins two “games of the week”. Double-digit performances from every skill position starter and three more double-digit RB’s on the bench led to this standout victory. For a team that looked like it was bailing out on the season a few weeks ago, they are looking pretty good as the long march towards the playoffs continues.

Keeper League

You’re in Chubble Now v. Trader Joey

• This league is incredibly competitive. Three teams are tied for first at 6–3, three teams are tied for fourth at 5–4, and four teams are tied for seventh at 3–6. Anyone can beat anyone in any given week. But Rob’s team has made a name for themselves by putting up huge numbers and winning game of the week a few times this season. They were playing Joey’s banged-up (and bye week-ed) team who only had one player on their bench who actually scored points.

Trivia

This player leads the league in red-zone targets.

Here’s the Thing

Tom Brady is my favorite player on my favorite team and I have shamelessly defended him in many, many arguments where I was probably in the wrong. I have never admitted he is “falling off the cliff” or “getting worse with age” but here’s the thing…Tom Brady has lost the one quality that made him truly special.

Here’s the thing, debating Brady’s greatness reached it’s most controversial between the 2013 and 2016 seasons. At that time Brady’s biggest competition was Peyton Manning who broke Brady’s passing touchdown record and won a Superbowl. In the 2013 season, Manning was by all accounts the better QB, but he also had a better situation. Brady was throwing to Kembrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson. Manning had Wes Welker and (prime) DeMaryius Thomas. If you were a Brady supporter at that time, all you could say was “look at what Brady is doing with this team around him, he makes everyone else better”.

Remember that game against the Saints? You know the one…”Unicorns…show ponies…where’s the beef!” Brady threw a last-second touchdown to Kembrell Thompkins in the back of the end zone to win the game. It was an absolutely perfect pass, and it had to be because there’s no way we win that game if it was left up to Thompkins to make a play.

But here’s the thing…picture that game today. Pats are lined up at the 20-yard line down by five with 15 seconds left. Jakobi Meyers is lined up out wide to the left. Brady looks, adjusts, fires…to Edelman six yards short of the goal line.

Here’s the thing…Brady can absolutely still make that throw. I actually think his deep ball has gotten better. But I don’t think he tries to make that throw because he lacks trust with all but a few receivers. That never used to matter. Remember what they used to say about Brady? “His favorite receiver is the open receiver” Now he hyper targets a couple of guys and says things to the media about how the rookies have a long way to go and don’t really know what they’re doing.

Look, I get it. This season’s ups and downs have been mostly ups for the defense and downs for Brady. He lost his all-star center, Isaiah Wynn has been replaced by one of those doors they have at saloons, and the wide receiver core has had more turnover than Deadspin (RIP). It does feel like every year Brady is faced with another mountain of adversity to climb. But here’s the thing…what has always set Brady apart is his ability to do more with less. Now it feels like he’s doing less and wanting more.