Week 5 Preview

The action is finally starting to pick up after four weeks. We've had 3 bets, 2 trades, and the FAAB dollars are starting to flow finally.

Congrats to Austin on winning two bets this season vs myself and Bryan. Also congrats to Rusty on a free round of golf from Austin. 

I would be interested to see who has done the most trades in Thumper history. I would assume myself, Bryan, and Austin would be the top three, so it's not surprise both trades this year have involved me. Surprisingly the other two parties have been from Weatherford.

Let's get to the waivers and new and improved power rankings.

Waiver Report

Sam Darnold - $54 - Rusty

Honestly one of the weirder FAAB dumps I've seen since we moved ot FAAB. Only two people bid on The Darnold and not only were they both over $50, but they were within $2 of eachother. Just thought that was odd. 

Chase Brown - $27 - Aron

I actually had $32 on him last Tuesday night but decided someone would probably spend $50+. Thought I cancelled all my bids for him but I guess I missed one. Kind of surprising no one bid a ton on him after his performance this weekend. 

Trey Sermon - $11 - Logan

There were quiet rumblings online Tuesday night that JT could be hurt and miss a couple of weeks. Another RB I thought people would spend up on, but I'm not sure many people in this league heard those rumors. Doesn't surprise me that Logan knew.

Dontayvion Wicks - $22 - Logan 

Every fucking podcast made Wicks their number one waiver wire pickup this week. I'm scared of the Packers WRs. Reed is established, but Wicks/ Doubs, whoever else can take over the 2nd WR role any given week. I think Logan getting him at $22 is more like it than the 50% or more that these podcasts were telling people to bid. 

I also listed the kicker Kevin spent $36 on just because that's crazy.

Power Rankings

We're reverting back to the tried and true power rankings we've used for the last 3 or 4 years. These look more accurate to me. Things that stick out:

Cord has a better record vs the league than Kevin, but somehow Kevin is 2-2. Kevin is actually the last rated team over the last 3 weeks.

Clint may be 1-3 and 9th in ESPN's standings, but he is 5th in the power rankings overall. He's had some bad luck and would actually be 27-17 vs the league this season. That would be the 4th best record overall. 

Rusty was the big dropper this week. He dropped 4 spots in the power rankings. 

The top of the rankings may be Weatherford, Weatherford, but the next 5 spots are taken by Watonga teams. Looks like Watonga will canibalize themselves and cost one or two teams a playoff spot again this year. 

Week 5 Games of the Week

Clint (1-3) vs Austin (3-1)

This is a big showdown. Austin is 3-1 and 4th in the power rankings. Clint is 1-3 and 5th in the power rankings. Are either of these teams contenders or are they pretenders?

The only bye on either team is Sam Laporta. Honestly, he's been so bad that it doesn't really matter. Austin's roster is at no disadvantage here.

Clint has done a great job restructuring this team. I think I ranked him pretty low in the preseason poll. I didn't like the Richardson or Chubb picks. Doesn't matter because he went out and got QB10 Justin Fields while Brian Robinson stepped up to be a top 12 RB while Chubb sits in the shadows. 

Jefferson and McLaurin are surprising everyone with the numbers they're putting up with new QBs. I don't think many thought Darnold would come in and run the offense even better than Cousins or that Daniels would be the QB1 through 4 weeks.

On the other side, Austin has filled in gaps as needed. Baker is a top 3 QB and filled in nicely for the injured Jordan Love. The rest of the team can't put it all together any given week. JT has an awesome game, but Cook looks inept. Pickens and London have both been letdowns so far for the most part. Reed may be the pick of the entire draft. He's looked awesome.

While Austin may have the better record, I just don't see any way he beats Clint's team this week. Clint's team is getting scary, especially with Chubb coming off IR. I gotta take Clint this week by a lot.

Commissioner's Pick:  Clint (Record 4-0)