At Razzball, we pride ourselves in the quality of our readers, because it sure takes a wise fantasy manager to dodge some of the hot taeks that we dish out. Lamar Jackson as QB1? What the hell were you thinking, Blair? Certainly, what I meant to write in the preseason QB article was that JUSTIN HERBERT WOULD BE QB7 BY WEEK 6! Yes! That’s what I meant!Â
And why does it matter that we have smart readers? Glad you asked! Some of you know that I, EverywhereBlair, was a Razzball originalist dating back to 2009. And look where I am now! In Grey’s basement with a Capri Sun and a bag of Cheetos writing fantasy football articles. From fan to fantasy analyst, you could do it too!Â
Why am I hyping our fans’ intelligence so much? Because one of our fans, Curtis Jones, has taken the #1 spot on the Razzbowl leaderboard. Congrats, Curtis!Â
Week 1 Highlights
We pride the Razzbowl as the premier better-ball league that pits fans against industry analysts, and for the most part, the industry analysts have claimed the top spots since 2019. Earlier this month, we saw Joey Wright claim the top spot for a week (and he currently sits at #5 in the competition). Meanwhile, Curtis, who is a frequent Razzball commenter over on the baseball side, took the #1 spot in the Razzbowl this week following a strong performance from his — wait for it — Robust RB squad that benefitted from Chase Claypool’s amazing 4TD performance in Week 5. Let’s take a look at Curtis’ squad.Â
Curtis Jones’ full squad
I know I’m a broken record on this by now, but almost all of the top squads in the Razzbowl have been Robust RB constructions. This is a big deal because I dug through all the 2019 Razzbowl data, as well as the NFFC Cutline Championships data, and discovered that almost all of the top tier teams were Robust RB constructs. Curtis’ team features Nick Chubb (currently injured), Aaron Jones, Mike Davis, and Chris Carson as his main RBs, which has given him a great upside and floor despite constant injuries at the position. Of course, Curtis’ situation may change soon when Christian McCaffrey returns, but he’s got Mark Ingram and Joshua Kelley to fill in his ranks should Davis disappear from the fantasy radar.Â
In the top 5 of the Razzbowl standings, we have two former #1 ranked teams — that of Joey Wright and also Mick Ciallela. Razzball’s own Roto-Wan continues to be the highest ranked Razzballer in the competition, and with a rank of 14, he’s about 70 points off the lead. Unfortunately, that’s nearly 2 Chase Claypool Week 5 performances of ground to make up.Â
FAAB-ulous Finds
The FAAB targets this week went to, surprisingly, Travis Fulgham, who tied with Andy Dalton as the most FAAB’d players. Dalton will take over the helm of the offensive juggernaut that is the Dallas Cowboys, and it’s easy to see how a mediocre QB could produce a high fantasy value in that system. Fulgham, however, went nuts in one game, and 17 Razzbowl owners decided that they would snag him on the hopes that he continues to get playing time in the crowded Eagles receiver corps. Chase Claypool, Robert Tonyan, and Jimmy Graham rounded out the top 5 pickups in Week 5.Â
Justin Herbert was still around in 3 leagues, which was pretty astounding. There were no wild bids off the board this week.Â
Cutline Looming
The Razzbowl has a cutline, meaning after Week 9, the format cuts the bottom half of each league. The top 3 scoring teams go to the Main Event championships, the next quarter of the league goes to the wild card program, and everybody else has a nice seat and enjoys the ride.Â
With about 4 weeks remaining until the cut, it’s important to ensure you’ve got your FAAB bids in to stay active in the main event. Although some bottom-dwelling teams have had big weeks recently, it’s important to have an active roster to make it through to the next round. Certainly, last year’s Razzbowl winner Mike Beers didn’t use any FAAB, but his team remained healthy from start to finish. But for many other managers, unused FAAB is like leaving money on the table.Â
Good luck in Week 6!
