Well... We Finished the Regular Season
Hello. shalom. hola. sup. Welcome to the Takes. Season is over. Playoffs are near. Let's get to the point and roll another joint, i'm too alone to be proud. you don't know it feels. you don't know how it feels. to be meeeee... good song. Mike is vehemently anti Petty if I recall... If not, I will print a retraction next week. Congratulations to our 6 playoff teams - Nick Joe BJ Peter Nolan Mike. You 6 all had good years, and should be commended for your effort. But now, it is big boy football time. Late December is when the boys and chumps get separated from the men and dudes. Congrats to JB as well for correctly predicting the 6 playoff teams in last years wrap up email. Unreal.
Wild week to wrap up the regular season. Joe started Mitch Trubisky and got stomped, albeit less heartbreaking than the real Mitch Trubisky against the Lions... Micah ends the regular season with a win over Tidwell, who started CEH with a zero after some shickanary from Andy Ried...Rill rolls through George to keep his team sharp. Rill needed the reps, but pulled the starters early. Man, does he need Zeke to get back to form to hold of some surging teams here...Kyle put a run on at the end, but falls short to Cucky Lasek. Kyle will be getting a bye in the consolation and Tractorcito may run wild like the Hulksters 24 inch pythons, brother... Nolan gets the two seed after a good week. Joe becomes the first person to go from 2nd to 5th in the final regular season week.. Peter and Mike have a good battle this week for positional standings. They play again in the first round of the playoffs, so lets see the adjustments the coaching staffs make for the following week. This will be a game of brains, not braun.
Thanks to everybody for partaking in our third annual interviews for the Takes. Per usual, for the regular season wrap up, everybody got to ask me a question for the interviews. Here are some thoughts on The Player Haters Ball, Wendys, and my favorite interviews from the past...
Question 1: Rank the three best teams in PHB history who did not win the title?
Answer: Jordan. Me in 2012. We have rehashed the infamous Mickey Finns night with the 49ers Seahawks vs. JB a ton. So no need. I went 15-1 and averaged 127 points per game, I didn't score less that 125 all season. I also met Abby that year so everything was looking up Milhouse.... Peter did not win the year he set the record for most points in a season, I forgot who he lost to though.. I remember Andrew Luck sitting, and AJ Green, and Jeremey Hill playing a role... I can not remember who won, let me look it up... Oh, it was Jordan. So I will say Peter in 2014.. John in 2015 would be the #3.
Question 2: Would you rather get a paper cut for a day for the rest of your life, at an unknown time, or always have a hangnail at all times?
Answer: Hangnail I think. The unknown is scary, man.
Question 3: What are your thoughts on Joe being the self proclaimed "Theo Epstein" of our league?
Answer: He started Mitch Trubisky this week, so... 65 points in the final week heading into MNF?
Question 4: Who are you rooting for in the playoffs this season ranked from who you want to win the most?
Answer: 1) Mike. #Worth. Been good a few times, been down a few times, so let's get Mike a W. 2) Beej. Deserves it after arguably having worse luck than a Clinton aide who is inadvertently on an Epstein flight log. 3) Pete - Would be #1, but he was ACTUALLY on the Epstein flight logs. ( If, and let's be honest they are, anyone in a position of authority is monitoring this website, he actually was not on those logs. Any questions can be forwarded to jhoff@deez.com) 4) Nolan. 5 and 1/2 - Joe. 5 and 1/2 - Nick.
Question 5: What is your go to order from McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Wendy's?
Answer: Have not had Wendy's in a long time. LONG ASS TIME. Years. 5 spicy nugs with honey mustard, and a Jr. Bacon Chee..
Taco Bell -> Cheesy Gordita Crunch, Beefy 5 layer burrito, hard taco supreme, and a spicy potato soft taco. McDonalds -> Breakfast man. LOOOOVE McDonalds breakfast food, not a huge fan of the rest. Sausage and cheese biscuit, two breakfast burritos, hash brown. Aaaaaand now here is George from Seinfeld hawking Mickey D's in the 80's
Question 6: After the last few seasons, who is the best interview in the league? Also, who is the best positioned dude for the 2021 fantasy season?
Answer: JB is best positioned by far. Michael Thomas and McCaffrey. Then he will have two firsts and two seconds to use or trade for future depth.... as for the best interview, I don't know. that's tough... So i spent the halftime of MNF thinking on this, and I know its weird, but I enjoy the randomness of the Furlong interviews. I can only think of real good answers from the past, not people who are great like Bill Murray on Letterman. Off the top of my head, here are my memories -> Enjoyed Tidwell's this year... I believe Mike and Jill enjoy quite a bit of Steve Harvey, which I enjoyed... Sean Furlong rating jalapenos a precise 7.8. Not a 7, or an 8, but a 7.8....BJ thinking his ID was lost, but he just left it at Kams....But, let's be honest, the best interview of all time is Joe saying he could take an 190 pound Tiger.
Question 6: Who is the most overrated and underrated athlete?
Jordan: Overrated initially is Jeter... Derek Jeter, that is. But I don't know, there is some magic sauce between analytics and "being a gamer" or the "clutch gene" that DOES exist, so in that regard, he is a winner and good, but he individually is not this elite elite guy. He is closer to Barry Larkin, Biggio, than people think, and that's not a knock on Barry. Like, switch Jeter with Craig Biggio and I think the yankees team wins another world series, maybe two. Biggio - 17 HR. 306/401/473. Jeter - 18 HR. 318/391/477. Pretty much the same hitter, but Jeter gets the pub. HOT TAKE ALERT!!!! Underrated is probably Sydney Moncrief or Terry Cummings in basketball (those 80s bucks teams were cool), and Stan Musial in baseball. Stan is a Cardinal, so that sucks, but ya know, he never gets mentioned with the old school greats....Wade Boggs has a higher WAR than Dimaggio, Griffey, and Nolan Ryan. My man...
ROUND 1 PREVIEW : BJ vs Joe. BJ started 0-2, and after that, he went 9-2. He only scored under 100 points once in that 11 game span. Joe has been a bit more up and down, but still really consistent. He finished number 2 in weeks 6,7,and 8. If Joe and BJ played every week, Joe would be 7-6. ESPN has Joe winning at 52% probability rate. (Both of these first round matchups are separated by an estimated 4 points. Wow.) Nobody playing Monday or Sunday night in this game besides Justin Tucker for Joe, so we should know the result of this game early, folks. Give me BJ in a squeaker. Like a squeaker. 111-113.5 or something like that. (PS - After week 8, I had guessed that Joe vs BJ would be the 4 vs 5 matchup. Came true. Go check the Takes. I got receipts). Winner of this game goes on to face Nick.
*Worst team scores from the 2020 season.
5) JB. Week 10. 64.8
4) Micah. Week 1. 63.6
3) Nick. Week 10. 63
2) George. Week 8. 58.4
1) Tidwell. Week 8. 54.8
*Best team scores from the 2020 season.
5) Joe. Week 4. 163
4) Nick. Week 3. 166.
3) Joe. Week 12. 173.2
2) JPH. Week 2. 193.8
1) Nick. Week 8. 198.4
*Kyle had least amount of points this season while getting a Top 6 Point this season with a 93.
* BJ had the most points without getting a Top 6 Point this season (figures) with 123
* Micah was historically unsuccessful, but he was unlucky too. Micah joins Joe as the only guys to never get a top 6 point in a season. He faced over 100 points more than the next guy. Lets put it this way -> He basically faced Nick each week in terms of points against. He faced 1566 and Nick scored 1569. Nick outscored him by 46 per week on average. He got really unlucky.
* Nick Nolan and Joe have the most weeks in the top 3 with 6. Nobody else has more than 4.
* Alright guys, I went back, and I tallied the league history in getting a Top 6 Point. Who has the most? Who has the least? Who knows? I do. from 14 to 1, here are the ranks
14) Sean Furlong - 8
13) - Shiggy - 20 ( He was in the league two years per ESPN, and had 20 of 26 weeks in the top 6, so if we were to do a ratio situation, he would be #1 by far)
12) Micah - 44
11) BJ - 52
10) Peter - 60
9) George - 63
8) Kyle - 63
7) Mike - 64
6) Tidwell - 69 (Nice)
5) Jordan - 71
4) Nick - 76
3) Joe - 77
2) Nolan - 83
1) JB - 99
ROUND 1 PREVIEW - Mike vs. Peter. If Mike and Peter played every week, Berrones would be 7-6 this season. Ol Mikey has a good sizable points lead over Peter as well. ESPN has this game at a 52% win favorability for Peter. I just see Mike winning in this one. I feel is his team is just a bit more consistent. Josh Allen has the Steelers this week as well, so that D is good. Give me Mike by a handful here. Not too close, but definitely not a blow out.
2021 PREVIEW - Guys, seems like we are all hunkering down with our rookie guys. A ton of rookies were taken this draft -> CEH, Jonathan Taylor, JK Dobbins, Cam Akers, and DeAndre Swift will all be kept for the 16th round. CeeDee Lamb, Henry Ruggs, and Justin Jefferson are all 7th round keepers. Josh Kelly in the 12th seems smart for Dr. Poop as well (I think Kyle has him, could be Peter, I don't know guys, its late). Those guys seem to be safe for keeping. That leaves a few question marks from the rookies taken -> Joe Burrow in the 8th. Zach Moss and Jerry Jeudy in the 5th and 6th for George... Looking a bit deeper, you can also assume that the following guys will be kept : Barkley, McCaffrey, Zeke, David Montgomery, Michael Thomas, DK Metcalf, Nick Chubb, Alvin Kamara, Deshaun Watson, Derrick Henry, Todd Gurley, Miles Sanders, and Kyler Murray. Hey, I could be wrong on a few, I am not going to go through and check, but that means about 25 of our leagues possible 36 keepers seem to be set for the next 2-3 years on rookie deals.. This upcoming season will be Mike keeping Mahomes for a third round pick and keeping him for his last season. That will add some depth to the first round in the seasons moving forward... If we look at the pick situation, George and Nick had some sort of trade bukkake cause they swapped a ton of picks. Kyle is still "pick deficient" (someone needs to hire me as PR writer) from trading, so maybe look for him to trade his 4th and 5th round picks for next year picks that are better. JB is looking set up, with 1,1,2,2,2,3,3 with a McCaffery trade to make. Actually knowing JB, he will be looking to trade that first and one of those seconds for future picks or tons of depth. He does it all time. Micah has 1,1,2,3,3,4,5,5. Good depth there, and with some trades could have a mondo draft.