Week 5 Recap: Odd Week

By Mel Alper, CTDB Analyst

Five weeks in, the Chunky Monkeys sit alone in first at 8-2. They’ve been first or tied for first after every week of the season - the defending champs continue to roll. However, the rest of the league continues a topsy turvy season. The Masterminds have won four straight and moved into second. Blitz still leads the league in points, but on Sunday it posted the fewest of anyone and slid to third at 6-4.

Perennial contender, Gang Green has lost four straight and is a rut of back luck - this past week he lost with the second-best score of the week. Thankfully we have the bonus win losses in places. LA Buffy has dropped three straight while Custom J ended a three-game skid.

In the preview I said odd weeks belonged to the Jail Yard Boyz, who finished last in Weeks 1 and 3. Right week, wrong end of the table. On Sunday they put up 194, the best score of the season, a week after sitting dead last in the league in points. Same Boyz, Different Sunday. Drake Maye, who had cleared 15 points once all year, went for 51, the best game by any player in this league so far. That’s five new season highs in five weeks, and this one reaches past the season. Since 2021 only one team has scored more: Fat Jubas, the franchise that’s now Blitz, put up 196 in Week 5 of 2021. This season already owns three of the ten best scores of that stretch. It’s October. Buckle up.

The games

Jail Yard Boyz 194, Gang Green 154

Drake Maye was the MVP here. He scored more on Sunday than in his first three games of the season combined. GM Victor started him over C.J. Stroud, the Friday pickup I told him to play. Noted, GM Victor.

Gang Green’s 154 would have beaten all eight other teams this week. It lost by 40 anyway, and GM Greg is now on a four-game slide with the second-most points in the league. Fantasy football can be be brutal.

Philadelphia Phreaks 140, A Squad Called Blitz 99

None of Blitz’s stars showed up this week. CeeDee Lamb caught two passes on Thursday night for 2 points, and Bijan Robinson, coming off two 100-yard games, gave Coach Thien a very pedestrian 14 points. The league’s highest-octaine g team posted the week’s lowest score, and it wasn’t a bye-week problem: Denzel Boston, one of the two fill-ins, was the fifth-best starter on the roster with 12. 

The Phreaks’ keepers did the opposite. Jahmyr Gibbs went for 35 and Puka Nacua for 29 even pre-hernia and all, and the Phreaks won by 41 a week after finishing last.

Chunky Monkeys 145, Crunch Bunch 121

The pass catchers decided the cousins’ game. Christian Watson’s 29 alone beat the 20 that GM Eddie’s whole receiving room and tight end gave him, and Carnell Tate, his first-round pick, had 1 of those. Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Brock Bowers added 20 and 19 for the Monkeys that was pretty much all she wrote for this matchup.

Coach Evan kept Trevor Lawrence as starter which was the right call as Lawrence delivered 29 fantasy points while Tyler Shough sat on less than a point (no touchdowns and 2 interceptions will do that).145 was the third-best score of the week, and it ended the Bunch’s four-game run in this series.

GM Eddie could've won as his best lineup scored 150, with MarShawn Lloyd’s 16 sitting on the bench but these games are never won on the bench as every GM in this league knows.

City of Angels Masterminds 137, LA Buffy 103

Buffy’s backfield lost this game. Jeremiyah Love, Cam Skattebo and David Montgomery gave GM Roger 9 points between them, on a day Matthew Stafford finally started for Buffy and went for 37 but it wasn't nearly enough - definitely not enough when the rest of your offense fails to show up. 

Parker Washington, the Masterminds’ second-round pick, posted 27 and powered the Mastermind offense. Honestly, the Masterminds are on a roll - it took 'em a few years but this may be the best roster we've seen from this franchise since they joined the league. 

Custom J 113, Battle Angel 102

Custom J wins! The quarterbacks decided this one, in both directions. GM Josh’s starter, Lamar Jackson, was listed out, so GM Josh paid 3 dollars on Friday for Jacoby Brissett, who scored 34. GM Will started Bo Nix over Jayden Daniels. Nix scored 11, and Daniels put up 34 on the bench, enough to flip the result on his own.

Custom J’s Trey McBride, whose points had dropped four weeks running, bounced back with 17. Custom J has now won five of the last six against the Angels. The team I drafted beat my own pick, took the Pot with the lowest winning score of the week, and gave GM Josh his first win since Week 1. Congrats, Josh. You earned this one, even if the computer did the drafting.

Heroes and Zeros

Heroes are the players who blew past what anyone expected of them. The Zeros list is for healthy stars and early picks who left the lineups built around them empty.

Heroes. Maye leads it by a mile. Isaiah Likely, a sixth-round pick, went for 27 at tight end for the Boyz, and Jaylen Warren put up 34 for the Bunch in a loss.

The waiver wire paid off for two teams. Brissett, a 3-dollar claim, won Custom J a game, and GM Ping’s prize free-agent signing, Ollie Gordon II, the season’s biggest bid at 31, finally started and posted 15. Keon Coleman, the Bunch’s 15-dollar claim, sat on the bench with 7.

Zeros. Blitz owns this list. Lamb finished with 2 and Harold Fannin Jr. with 1, both keepers. Two first-round rookies joined them: Love, Buffy’s first pick, put up 2, and Tate had 1 for the Bunch. Chase Brown, a Monkeys keeper, gave the champ 6 and was the one Zero whose team won.

Manager of the Week

This award grades start and sit calls, and the ones that decided games this week were at quarterback.

Manager of the Week: Victor, Jail Yard Boyz. GM Victor benched his Friday pickup, Stroud, for Maye, against my advice, and the Boyz set the season high.

Calls that cost. GM Will’s quarterback call cost the Angels 23 points, the most in the league, and the game. GM Eddie left 29 on his bench, second-most in the league behind the Angels.

Calls that didn’t. GM Ping started six Eagles, and one of those calls was Makai Lemon over Justin Jefferson. Lemon put up 7, and Jefferson, back from his ankle, put up 16 on the bench. The Phreaks won by 41.

Projections only. Coach Evan, GM Roger and Coach Thien started exactly what the projections wanted. The champ got 145 and a win out of it. Buffy and Blitz got 103 and 99.

The Trainer’s Room

In a keeper league an injury costs this week’s points, the waiver money spent covering for it, and sometimes next year’s keeper.

Gang Green. Three of GM Greg’s first four picks sat this week, and all three carry an injury tag. Jadarian Price, his first-rounder, and Michael Pittman Jr., his fourth, are on injured reserve, and DJ Moore, his second, went from questionable to out. That’s a lot of draft capital on the sideline for a team on a four-game slide.

The Phreaks. Saquon Barkley, a keeper, was listed out and sat. J.K. Dobbins took his spot and scored 14. Will Shipley, GM Greg’s 7-dollar claim and Barkley’s backup in Philadelphia, left the weekend doubtful, so that bet hasn’t paid yet.

Custom J. Jackson, a keeper, was listed out, and two starters picked up new tags: TreVeyon Henderson is doubtful after 4, and the early word on his ankle is multiple weeks, and KC Concepcion questionable after 1. De’Von Achane, also a keeper, remains on injured reserve, so both of the stars Custom J kept at quarterback and running back are sidelined.

The Bunch. Kyle Monangai was listed out. Roman Wilson, the 8-dollar claim, is now listed out too, and Quinshon Judkins, the second-round pick, is questionable after 7 with an ankle tweak that’s being called day-to-day. A.J. Brown, a keeper, is still on injured reserve.

The Masterminds. Deebo Samuel Sr. started, scored 2 and is now listed out, with a hamstring expected to cost him at least a couple of weeks. He joins Breece Hall, a keeper, and Caleb Williams, the Masterminds’ fourth-round pick, both out, and Alec Pierce is on injured reserve. Four players down, and the team is second in the standings.

Buffy and Blitz. Montgomery, a Buffy keeper, left Sunday doubtful after his 1 and is now week-to-week with a groin injury, and DeVonta Smith, another keeper, was out. Lamb, a Blitz keeper, came out of the weekend questionable with a quad bruise from Thursday night, with the waiver run on Wednesday.

The Monkeys. Smith-Njigba, a keeper, finished questionable after a 20-point day with a twisted ankle, though he’s expected to be ready for Thursday.

The Pot and the standings

Week 5 paid the lowest-scoring winner, the prize the Monkeys looked built for. They won with 104 in Week 2 and 101 in Week 4, and either one would have taken it. This week they scored 145, and Custom J won it with 113, the next-lowest winner sitting at 137. It’s Custom J’s first Pot of the season. Week 6 pays the best rookie.

Counting bonus results, the Monkeys lead at 8-2, the Masterminds are second at 7-3 and Blitz is third at 6-4. Gang Green, the Boyz and the Phreaks are 5-5. The Bunch and the Angels are 4-6, and Buffy and Custom J share the bottom at 3-7. Blitz’s 99 was a bottom-half score, which is how it lost twice on Sunday.

Next week

The Phreaks host the Monkeys in a rematch of Week 2, when the Monkeys won 104 to 87. The Phreaks have alternated wins and losses all five weeks, which makes this one a loss on paper. The Monkeys haven’t lost head to head.

The Bunch host the Boyz in a cousins’ game and a Bay Area division game, 6-6 over the last five years, a week after the Boyz set the season high. The Masterminds bring four straight wins against an Angels team that just lost with its best quarterback on the bench. Buffy hosts Blitz, the points leader coming off its worst week. Custom J hosts Gang Green, which has won ten of the last twelve between them.