The Drama Kings

CHUNKY MONKEYS (6-3)
Being at the top of the regular season standings is nothing new for the Monkeys. They are constantly a team on in the mix, but like their NFL counterparts, the Eagles, they are always choking in the playoffs. Could this finally be the Monkeys year? With the most points scored in the league (by almost 10pts per game) and the best record, the Monkeys are hoping they can finally reach the promised land. With 6 century games and a week low of 90 pts, this team comes to play.

Armed with the tremendous trio of Peyton Manning (league leading 269 pts), Shaun Alexander (161) and LT (145), the Monkeys feature the best QB and two of the top five RBs. Did we mention Andre Johnson? An emerging stud and the fourth best WR in the game? It's a wonder that the Monkeys ever lose. If Darrell Jackson (89 pts) can keep on improving on his recent hot surge, the Monkeys might finally have the WRs to go with a traditionally strong ground game. Of course, any contender still has holes and it's at the third WR spot that the Monkeys fail to find consistency out of Chris Chambers or Amani Toomer.

DIRTY BIRDS (6-3)
The only team in this division to beat the Monkeys? That's right, the Dirty Birds, who squeaked out a 6pt win against them in WK2. In what has to be the surprise of the year, the Birds are right up there, neck and neck, with the league leaders. Despite being the 2nd lowest scoring team in the league, the Birds have managed to claw and scratch their way to six wins. Maybe it's the league leading PA schedule? Just maybe. But still, this team can be dangerous when it needs to be (two century games, two 99 pt games)and it never lays a goose egg (scoring only under 90pts twice). One of the Bird's losses was a forfeit and one was a loss by one point, so it could be argued that the Birds could be the best team in the league right now, but we won't argue that.

The question is, can these guys keep it up? This team has been devoid of stars, and solid producers (especially since Tiki was cut), but somehow the team manages to keep churning. Aaron Brooks has been top ten QB and he's anchored a rotating backfield of young guns like Rudi Johnson, DeShaun Foster (2 big games before being injured), Lee Suggs and now, mid-season revelation, Willis McGahee. With an up and coming WR corps (Roy Williams, Larry Fitzgerald, Ashely Lelie, Keary Colbert), the Birds can do some high flying too.

From a rebuilding season to a contending season, have the Birds run out of magic or can they keep a flapping?

TIIIIITE END JAMMERS (4-5)
Last year's champion seems destined for a trip to the playoffs, which is more than the previous two champions have been able to accomplish. What started out as a 1-5 record for the Jammers has nicely turned into a 4-5 record with three straight wins. The Jammers are back everybody and they're mad as hell. As evidenced by their back to back 141 and 151 points (season record) in WK7 and WK8.

Sporting the top two RBs in the league (Priest and Tiki, along with Ahman at 7th), the Jammers are primed for a true defense of their title. While QB Michael Vick has been more than sporadic, he remains the piece that could make the Jammers unbeatable. And it's not like Tom Brady or Steve McNair aren't serviceable backups.

Last year's weak (in relation to the QB and RBs) receiving corps is now bursting with weapons. Marvin Harrison (top 3 WR), Jimmy Smith (top 10 WR) and the newly invigorated Plaxico Burress (top 25 and moving up) are looking like the strongest WR duo in the league. Combine the best WR trio with the best RB duo along with Vick and what do you get? The entire Dirty Bird championship roster from two years ago? No. You get a scary looking championship team ready to avenge early season losses.

The Jammers could go undefeated the rest of the way and pull out home field advantage through the playoffs (again) if the players play up to even 75% of their potential.

BUFFY (4-5)
The Jammers have won three, the Buffyians have lost three. Elevator action as the two teams pass each other in the standings. Buffy has been wildly inconsistent, bursting out of the gates with some huge games and then playing down to the level of their competition; as evidenced by their weekly scores: 98-114-131-97-80-110-73-65-108. Why the wild swings of success? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Buffy's fate is directly tied into the fate of the St Louis Rams.

Stalwarts like Marshall Faulk (108 pts), Torry Holt (107) and Isaac Bruce (100) have had their explosive games this year but they've also been erratic, just like the Rams. Even with another top ten WR in Joe Horn (104 pts) -- giving Buffy three of the top dozen receivers -- Buffy has been hard pressed for consistency. Some of this blame has to be spread to Travis Henry, who was a colossal bust. QB Matt Hasselbeck was looking like a bust until recently and even though he leads this team with 145 pts, he will have to really up his game to match his pre-season expectations.

Intriguing Patriot Corey Dillon has had his hot flashes but he's dinged up and hurt so now the onus is on Michael Pittman to match his stellar past few week's of performances. Can he do it? Can the ground game of Faulk, Dillon and Pittman give the Buffy aerial attack some legs? They'll have to otherwise the losing streak will just keep on going.

Strangely, Buffy is 3-1 within their division, with their only loss coming against the Chunky Monkeys in WK1. That means Buffy has been able to dominate the Drama Kings but has been the stomp pad for those Spunky Misunderstood Geniuses.

ANTE UP (2-7)
Ante Up has traditionally been a first half team, but they started off with a 56 point effort in WK1 and it's been only slightly uphill from there. This is one first half of the season that Ante Up fans would certainly rather forget. Four century games and nine weeks into the season, Ante Up only has two wins to show for all of their hard work. In fact, Ante Up hasn't been a true contender since season one, when they started off undefeated in five games but somehow managed to slip to a final record of 5-8. After back to back 5-8 records in 2001 and 2002, last year's 8-7 mark was a spark of hope, but now Ante Up is looking like it'll set a new franchise low for wins.

Can Ante Up ownership turn this franchise around and finally get on track? The roster on hand certainly looks like its got some weapons, but can you really live forever on potential?

RBs Edgerrin James (139 pts, 6th best RB) has become a dependable feature back and looks fully recovered from his ACL tear of two years ago, but the rest of this team has been disappointing. Greater things were expected out of QB Trent Green than 164 pts and only ranking as the eighth best signal caller in the game. The Chiefs have not been the offensive juggernauts they were supposed to be and Green's numbers have suffered.

WRs Derrick Mason, Donte' Stallworth and Laveranous Coles have been unable to duplicate the success they had last year and only the emergence of Reggie Wayne has kept this aerial unit passable. Even the balls busting defense of the Buccanneers have taken a quick slide to mediocrity this year (ranked 16th) and without that bone crushing defensive prescence, it looks like Ante Up is having difficulty winning games.

On the bright side, Ante Up is only two games out of a playoff berth but they're going to really need Trent Green to step up, a weaker schedule (Ante has faced the hardest opponents this year by far), or for old war horse Jerome Bettis to get a whole more carries and TDs. Otherwise it'll be "Ante Suck" for another year.