Petals for Armor

 First of all, as always, please check out (and perhaps purchase) my photos from the past couple weeks here. 

 Second, NFL football started week one... and finished it. I can't believe it. As for my fantasy prospects. I had essentially given up on this year in dynasty pre-season. I am in full tank mode, and that couldn't have been clearer in my 65-point first week. 

However, I am involved in four re-draft leagues, and I was 1-3 in week one, despite strong weeks in 3-of-the-4 leagues. One league was dismal, we won't reflect on that, however, I had solid weeks in the other three, but lost in two of them due to an unlucky matchup. I was the top scorer of the losers in both of those leagues, and had more points than some of the winners as well, so all is certainly not lost. In my main re-draft league, I made a rostering error, starting the rookie WR Jerry Jeudy over Darius Slayton, or I would've easily won. As it turned out, I lost by only a few points, as Jeudy failed to deliver for me late, though he wasn't awful, and my prospects moving forward for him are still positive. 

I do not have time for a full fledged music review for this week, but I have been listening to some albums over the COVID-19 postponement of this blog, and I will just say this about a couple of them: Taylor Swift's surprise indie-alternative record "folklore" was boring and pedestrian. However, another female star, Hayley Williams from the band Paramore, released a solo record, "Petals for Armor," which was fantastic. Several of the tracks were absolute bangers. I can't get enough. I listened to it for a week straight, and have since been coming back. It is a front-runner for my Album of the Year, if I do decide to have that this year, I may scrap it, since I didn't review many albums so far in 2020. 

Thanks for visiting. Enjoy. 

Annual cruddy NFL predictions

First off: Check out my photos of recent Morrison County area sports here!  

 

Next, let us check out how I did a year ago: 

Round 1: 
NFC
  Philadelphia (WC) at Green Bay
  Atlanta  (WC) at Seattle
 AFC
  Baltimore (WC) at Cleveland
  LA Chargers (WC) at Houston
 Divisional Round: 
AFC
 LA Chargers at New England 
  Cleveland at Kansas City 
NFC
  Philadelphia at New Orleans
  Seattle at Dallas
Conference Championships: 
NFC
  Dallas at New Orleans
AFC 
  LA Chargers at Kansas City
Super Bowl: 
  Kansas City vs. New Orleans

Champ: Kansas City (40-33) MVP: Patrick Mahomes

Holy Baloney Batman!!! I not only predicted the correct champ, but the MVP as well (undeserved, but that's another issue). I also had 5-out of-6 NFC teams correct (Vikings, Packers, Eagles, Seattle and Saints), though not quite in the right order. The AFC was less solid with 3-out-of-6 (Ravens, Pats, Chiefs).  I overhyped Dallas and Cleveland a bit last year, but man, what a great year. I had 8-out-of-12 playoff teams right, that's 2/3! And that Championship team to boot. I still can't believe it. 

Riding off that 2019-20 performance, I'll share my 2020 picks: 

Wild Card: 

AFC: 7. Miami at 2. Chiefs

6. Browns at 3. Tennessee

5. Broncos at 4. Buffalo 

NFC: 7. Tampa Bay at 2. Seattle

6. 49ers at 3. Saints 

5. Cardinals at 4. Vikings 

Division Round: 

AFC: 6. Browns at 1. Ravens 

5. Broncos at 2. Chiefs 

NFC: 6. 49ers at 1. Cowboys 

4. Vikings at 2. Seattle  

Conference Championships: 

AFC: 2. Chiefs over 1. Ravens 

NFC: 2. Seattle over 1. Dallas 

Superbowl 55: KC Chiefs over Seattle 

MVP: Mahomes  

 

Interesting notes from my predictions include: Tampa Bay goes 11-5 with Tom Brady in his first year after leaving the Patriots. Two 12-4 teams are wild cards. The New England Patriots (12-4 in 2019) go 3-13 in 2020. Also of note, Joe Burrow leads Bengals to 7-9 record, an improvement of five games.  

RB, WR and TE

 I got way behind on this, because I've been very busy, but here are the rest of my rankings all fast-like. 

RB: 

1. Christian McCaffrey: Obvious number one. He was a beast without a good QB, and now they have Teddy, so this is a no-brainer. 

2. Saquon Barkley: He is also a beast, and after he recovered from his injury he was amazing last year. 

3. Ezekiel Elliot: The Cowboys offense could really be a juggernaut this year, and Elliot is the engine. 

4. Alvin Kamara: He is super talented, still pretty young, and the Saints have a good offense. This is a good pick. 

5. Clyde Edwards-Helaire: In the Chiefs offense, this is an easy spot to put the rookie. 

6. Dalvin Cook: I had Cook as high as three in earlier rankings, but his contract situation and injury risk drops him a bit. 

7. Nick Chubb: Though Kareem Hunt may cut into his touches, Chubb has the ability to still put up massive numbers. 

8. Josh Jacobs: He is a horse, and is going to get a ton of touches. 

9. Derrick Henry: Henry had the best year of his career a year ago. He'll never be that good again. That said, he is still an RB1. 

10. Joe Mixon: Mixon should get the bell cow share of the touches for the Bengals, which puts him up there. 

11. Austin Ekeler. 12. Kenyan Drake. 13. Aaron Jones 14. Mile Sanders 15. Leonard Fournette 16. Jonathan Taylor 17. David Montgomery 18. James Conner 19. Chris Carson 20. Todd Gurley 21. Melvin Gordon 22. Cam Akers 23. Mark Ingram II 24. David Johnson 25. Kareem Hunt

WR: 1. Michael Thomas: He was a record setter last year, and I don't see his volume going down much, even with Emmanuel Sanders as the new No. 2 WR for NO. 

2. Tyreek Hill: Has the best QB in football throwing to him, and he is very fast. 

3. Davante Adams: ARod has to throw to someone. 

4. Julio Jones: Mr. Reliable here, and the Falcons should be a bit better this year, I think? 

5. DeAndre Hopkins: Air Raid Offense. Enough said. 

6. Mike Evans: I think his size makes him a better option in TB than Godwin. 

7. Kenny Golladay: Detroit's No. 1 target, easily, and he should only get better than last year. 

8. Adam Thielen: He is the guy in Minnesota, and they have a solid offense. 

9. DJ Moore: He has an upgrade at QB, which should help him make a step up. 

10. Chris Godwin: TB should have a better offense, and Godwin is a stud. 

11. Odell Beckham Jr. 12. Amari Cooper 13. Juju Smith-Schuster 14. Allen Robinson II 15. Terry McLaurin 16. AJ Brown 17. Courtlan Sutton 18. Cooper Kupp 19. DJ Chark 20. DK Metcalf 21. Tyler Boyd 22. Tyler Lockett 23. Keenan Allen 24. Calvin Ridley 25. Stefon Diggs 26. Jarvis Landry 27. Ceedee Lamb 28. Michael Gallup 29. Marqise Brown 30. T.Y. Hilton 

TE: 1. Travis Kelce: Kelce gets the edge over Kittle due to the Mahomes factor. 

2. George Kittle: He is a beast, and the No. 1 target for the 9ers. 

3. Mark Andrews: He has a little less competition for snaps. 

4. Darren Waller: He won't see the targets he did a year ago with the rookie WRs Oakland added, but he'll still get his. 

5. Zach Ertz: Wentz has to throw to someone. 

6. Hunter Henry 7. Tyler Higbee 8. Austin Hooper 9. Rob Gronkowski 10. Mike Gesicki. 

Annual Fantasy Football rankings

 

First off, Follow the link for all the photos I took this summer. Not as many as usual, but once things opened up, it went pretty solid. 

 https://www.hometownsource.com/morrison_county_record/free/sports-june-july/collection_804f516c-d81c-11ea-b941-ab9e018e1c9b.html

 Next up for business: Fantasy Football. 

I do not have a whole lot of time for this, but I will make more posts as soon as I can with RB, WR and TE, but this week I am going to tackle Quarterbacks. 

Quarterback is actually a pretty deep position this season. There were 18 quarterbacks last season that averaged more than 22 fantasy points per week (6-point touchdown passes, 1 point for every 25 yards passing), and that doesn't include Drew Brees, but does include his BACKUP (Jameis Winston). Those 18 quarterbacks also don't include the No. 1 overall pick, who is expected to helm a veteran-led and talented offense in Cinci and Daniel Jones, who could easily breakout with a number of young, talented players around him in a soft division. So, therefore I advocate perhaps staying away from a number of the quarterbacks in the first several rounds. This is a strategy that I often employ, and have advocated for in the past. One I did not follow a year ago (took Patrick Mahomes in the top of round 2), but probably should've (took Dak Prescott in the 14th round). If you have to, take two or even three quarterbacks in the late rounds to shore up the position. One will likely emerge as a solid starter. And since it is the 14th, 15th round or whatever, the rest of your team should've been stocked strongly with RBs/WRs from the first through 12th rounds or so. Anywho...

So with philosophy out of the way. Here are my rankings for QB: 

1. Patrick Mahomes: Incredibly talented. Maybe the best I've ever seen. Plays in a fantasy friendly offense, and might now have a stable running attack to help balance the offense. 

2. Lamar Jackson: Jackson proved he can not only do it with his legs, but with his arm as well. He doesn't have a ton of weapons at his disposal, but his running ability really makes up for that. He was No. 1 a year ago for a reason. Barring an injury (which could really happen to anybody) he should be good. 

3. Dak Prescott: Most experts will probably have Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson here maybe, but Prescott easily has the best situation in fantasy. He has three premium WRs, a huge target at TE in Blake Jarwin, and one of the best RB and OL in the league. If Prescott doesn't duplicate or improve upon last season, I'd be really surprised. 

4. Russell Wilson: Pretty hard not to put Wilson up here. He has had 30 touchdowns and 11 or less interceptions in 4 of the last 5 years. That has also included four years of nearly 4,000 yards passing. He is no slouch on the ground either, adding at least 350 yards rushing in each of those seasons as well. 

5. Kyler Murray: He proved last season that he most definitely is a viable option at QB, and he will only get better with DeAndre Hopkins and all the weapons he will have in Arizona. 

6. Deshaun Watson: Watson is too talented not to be up here. He did lose the aforementioned Hopkins, but he still has some talent around him, and he might be forced to use his very capable legs to make up the difference, which potentially could lead to him getting hurt, or getting him a lot more points. 

7. Drew Brees: Brees has one more year of excellence in him, and with Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara, he should still put up good numbers. 

8. Josh Allen: Allen is a playmaker. He might not be the best game QB, but he will put up numbers, and with Stefon Diggs in his corner and a solid running game behind him, he is poised to be a top 10 QB. 

9. Daniel Jones: Jones surprised a year ago, and now that the show is officially his, he should make a leap.   

10. Tom Brady: Mr. Reliable has a TON of talent around him, and he should put up some good numbers at age 43. 

11. Matt Ryan 12. Carson Wentz 13. Baker Mayfield 14. Matt Stafford 15. Aaron Rodgers 16. Jared Goff 17. Kirk Cousins 18. Ben Roethlisberger 19. Drew Lock 20. Cam Newton. 

 

 

This is insane

I never thought I'd have a spring without sports, but this seems to be more and more likely each day. I have no review this week, but here are the last of the sports photos in the a Sports Gallery. Enjoy.

circle the drain

This week I listened to the album "Color Theory" by Soccer Mommy. After listening to the garbage that is Grimes last week, it was refreshing to listen to an actual creative and musically amazing artist. This album was super good, and I think she could possibly be the 2020 version of Billie Eilish. I especially enjoyed the track "circle the drain."

Anywho here are some photos from Feb. 20-27. Enjoy.

Delete Forever

Caught somewhere in the abyss between the most experimental Radiohead files, and the worst Dub Step you can imagine is the one, the only (and this is the only thing that she has going for her) Grimes. It's unique, but it is also devastatingly bad, is the best way that I can use to describe the latest "album" "Miss Anthropocene, if you can call it an album. More accurately it is a collection of screams and shrieks set to a third-rate beat that someone (probably Elon) bought off a shady website. Of course there is also the track "Delete Forever" which has a lot of "I'm playing in the corner of a packed Starbucks to people who just want to get their damn coffee, but 'hey, would you please buy my CD for $1" vibe to it. I'm not sure if that's worse or better than the rest of the album, but hey, it's different, and that's the best thing I'll ever say about it. Anyone who thinks this is good must be stoned out of their gourd.

To see more photos like the one below, follow this link: Sports Gallery Feb. 13-18.