Nick (3–3) vs. Johnson (4–2)

We are at the midway point. 6 weeks down, 6 regular season weeks to go after this point. In a week as important as this, it’s only fitting that a guest writer comes in to fill in for our “Data King”, Jon Anderson. I have done some writeups in the past, and while they are not as funny as Jon’s, as analytically filled, or as accurate, I hope the few hours I will waste on this will be appreciated. 5 of the 6 matchups this week have someone playing in the TNF Eagles/Giants game so all of those will get previewed today. No matchups this week feature two winning teams, so this should be easy…right?

Johnson (4–2) vs. Nick (3–3)

Johnson comes into this matchup having lost to the top overall team last week in Hahn. Johnson’s only high hopes came from the awful radio announcing of the Steelers. Seriously, if you have never listened to the Steelers radio broadcast, those two guys must be pounding drinks and announcing what they see, it’s not pretty. The Steelers defense got Johnson’s hopes high, but I made sure to crush them with every backseat update I provided to him on our return trip from Myrtle Beach. Solid outings form Tannehill/Brown/Jonnu and Mike Davis buried Johnson before we even got into the kiss your cousin state of West Virginia. Single digit performances by Hopkins/Schultz, and Burkhead sealed Johnsons very large casket in week 6.

Nick didn’t fare as well last week as he dropped his matchup to arguably the worst team in our league, in Randy. Randy started Benny Snell Jr. and Royce Freeman as his RB’s and he still won the matchup. Let me also tell you that his WR combo of Tyreek Hill and Mike Evans scored a combined 7.5 points. Even Randy’s Wi-Fi signal had a higher output than his WR last week, and Nick still couldn’t win. Nick wasn’t helped with Jacob’s on a bye week and Lev waiting to join his new team, so he was forced to start Peterson and Boone, but my god he didn’t even score 90 points. Rodgers dropped the biggest dud of the year only putting up 5.4 against Tampa and Nick’s highest scoring player ended up being a 19.5 performance from the free agent flier Travis Fulgham. Some rough dud’s last week but that loss to Randy could be detrimental later in the year for a current 3–3 team.

Let’s get to this week:

Johnson:

Johnson is projected for 135 points this week and it’s possible he gets there but he will need Hopkins and Zeke to rebound for that to happen. Hopkins and Metcalf will be involved in this game that should be very pass heavy. I don’t like Brees this week against a stout panther’s defense that hasn’t allowed a team to score more than 23 points in the past 4 matchups. Zeke couldn’t hold the ball and coughed up two fumbles last week. If the cowboys are going to win any games this year, they are going to have to rely heavily on Zeke now. If the Cowboys can get Zeke involved more in the pass game, his value should shoot up because if last week is any indication of how the Cowboys remaining games will go, they are still going to go pass heavy as Dalton threw 50+ times in his first game. Johnson’s TNF player is Slayton who I still haven’t bought into. He salvaged a 2-catch performance last week by making one of them a TD after coming off his best game against a week Dallas secondary that he hauled in 8 catches on 11 targets. The worst thing going for Slayton is his QB so if he doesn’t find the endzone tonight, he will be putting up a 5 or 6-point performance. Also, I don’t love the Steelers defense against the all-around great offense of the titans but Johnson’s going to stick with the hometown kids.

My projections:

Brees-18
Zeke-17
Lindsay-9
Hopkins-25
DK-18
Henry-8
Fournette-5
Slayton-6
Steelers-1
Projected Total: 107

Nick:

Lomby gets to roll out Jacobs/Bell which is a much better combo than Peterson/Boone but the matchups aren’t pretty this week. Jacobs goes against what I believe is the toughest rush defense in the league now that the Steelers are without Bush, in the Tampa Bay Bucs. Lev Bell will play his first game with the Chiefs, but he is listed as the backup to the impressive rookie Carl Edwards-Helaire. If the Chiefs are smart, they utilize Bell as a slot receiver and go two rb packages, but we shall see what Andy Reid sees this week, which is probably nothing through that damn mask. Rodgers looks for redemption this week and he should get it as he takes on Houston’s sketchy secondary. Loving the Rodgers-Adams combo this week and likely will look for that in DK this week. JuJu has become as reliable as nick’s workout routine come Feb 1st. Claypool has taken over as the go to back in Pittsburgh which is fine for JuJu but not for JuJu’s fantasy owners. McLaurin will benefit from a good matchup against Dallas this week and Waller is in a good spot as well. Fulgham is Nicks TNF participant and it’s hard to say something bad about this dude after his last two weeks. This guy has seen 23 targets the last two weeks, hauled in 16 of them and has 227 yards and 2 scores in those games. Now he gets the Giants in primetime tonight and as much as I want to say something negative about him with Desean Jackson playing tonight, I just can’t. Carson Wentz is straight ass but he has developed a great chemistry with this dude and there’s no Miles Sanders/Jeffrey/Ertz here tonight.

My Projections:

Rodgers-32
Jacobs-11
Bell-7
Adams-20
JuJu-3
Waller-8
McLaurin-16
Fulgham-19
Browns-4

Projected Total:120

Now while I gave my projections above it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the team I am picking to win. Unfortunately, that is the case though here. I can’t pick against the Rodgers/Adams duo and the WR/flexes of Nick make up for the poor RB numbers he will put up.

Johnson gets on Nick’s Peloton, breaks it, and Nick buys another one as he climbs up the Peloton leaderboard and moves to 4–3 in FLUF.