GWBL - WEEK 6
WEEK 6 – 2025 SEASON – GWBL
And we’re back for another weekly installment of GWBL entertainment. First things first – go Pats. A nice win away from Foxboro against a competitive team. A game that never felt like it was in doubt, even though it was close on the scoreboard (thanks refs). To me this felt like one of those Patriots games circa 2011-2014, the first years post-Bryant. The years I spent in Malden and Southie before moving in with Emma and settling down. All day binges every Sunday with the likes of Dylan, Ken, Guy, Lamone, Kartel, Tone, etc etc. Beers, buds and tons of unhealthy food. SUNDAY FUNDAY. When the Pats were so good that you just KNEW with a moral certainty that they were going to win. It didn’t matter how the game started or what the score was at half. You just knew the Pats would score the first time they got the ball in the second half and slowly put the game away. Or Tom would lead us to a comeback win with an effortless game winning drive. That’s how this game felt. I just knew they were going to win. And it was a good feeling.
Less of a good feeling was how this week went in the GWBL. Highest points in a loss, 151+ in a losing effort. Sweeeeet. With that we’ll move on to the week’s entertainment – matchup recaps. I’ll take a quick gander at each matchup and highlight a few things that stuck out to me. Here we go:
The LiGHT SKiNS (Lamone) defeat Tom’s Retirement Tour (Commish): 189.96 to 151.34
Fuck you Lamone, fuck you so hard. A few weeks ago I mentioned how I’ve noticed my long running fantasy leagues seem to develop trends. Kev’s bad luck, the curse of the #1 seed in this league, certain owners being lucky year after year, etc. Well one of those is my bad luck against Lamone in our H2H matchups. I feel like something weird always happens. Earlier this year I lost to him in our Westford league by less than 2 points because the Lions D had 7 sacks on MNF. This week in the GWBL I scored 151 and still lose. The 3rd highest output of the week and my season high… yet I still lose. Having to pay him the $10 for weekly high score is just the cherry on top of the poopsicle.
I don’t know if the fact that Lamone got 40 points from Rico Dowdle makes it better or worse. I guess better? When something like that happens you know it just wasn’t meant to be. Dowdle had 51 carries on the season prior to Week 6 – he had 30 this week. Dowdle had 48 receiving yards on the season prior to Week 6 – he had 56 this week. He’s a 27 year old RB with a largely uninspiring track record, but now he’s the second coming of Jay Ajayi. Right in time for my matchup with Lamone. Sweet.
But fine I’ll admit, Lamone’s team is good. Jacobs is a workhorse and Drake London finally showed the full extent of his talent. Tetairoa scored the first TDs of his young career and the arrow is firmly pointed up for the Light Skins.
Chase is On the Case (Ken) defeats I LOVE LAMB (Tieg): 149.08 to 106.26
The Paw Patrol keeps rolling and Ken is now 6-0. He was able to put up 149 even with Justin Jefferson on a bye and the usual studs like James Cook/Judkins having down weeks. The Patrick Mahomes renaissance continues and he’s now QB1, ahead of Josh Allen (37 this week). Meanwhile Ashton Jeanty’s breakout continues – averaging over 25 a week the past 3 weeks. Will Ken use some of his draft capital to buy in? Does he even need to? Stay tuned.
From one end of the spectrum to the other – Tieg may love lamb, but he must hate the 2025 season. AJ Brown continues to disappoint with a meager 14 points in Week 6. Which is actually the 2nd highest total of his nightmare season. Kenneth Walker continues to rope-a-dope his owners, scrounging together just 6.7 fantasy points this week. After looking like the second coming of Ladainian Tomlinson, BILL Croskey Merritt disappointed with only 9 points in a plus matchup. All of this adds up to a 1-5 record and the least points scored. It’s not too late to turn it around, but he’s got some serious work to do.
Brown ^ 2 (Keetz) defeats Two Joe’s One Kupp (Tone): 94.34 to 85.91
This is the kind of matchup that really chaps my ass. Makes me very-butt hurt when I score 151 points and lose. Meanwhile these two teams are doing their best impersonation of the My Pillow Guy, combining for fewer points than my opponent totaled by himself this week. Last one, I promise.
What’s worse though – losing because your opponent had the highest point total, or squandering a completely winnable matchup? Tone has to feel like this is a missed opportunity. He’s scored 115 or more every other week and of course, puts up a season low when his opponent also puts up a season low. It was extra painful because Tone watched Rico Dowdle go for 40 while his Chuba Hubbard is injured. He watched Kimani Vidal blow up while his Hassan Haskins shit the bed. And worst of all, Puka Nacua got hurt (doesn’t seem serious). This was big in the standings too – Tone falls to 2-4 while Keetz gets up to 3-3.
Conversely, Keetz must be thrilled. Always nice to get away with one, we’ve all been there. Season low outputs from Matthew Stafford, Jahmyr Gibbs and Garret Wilson? No problem. Trey McBride put the team on his back (21) and they did just enough to get the W.
Deebo Baggins (Frader) defeats Oshkosh B’JOSH (Kev): 145.57 to 132.6
Kev has bad luck, we all know that. He even admitted he’s considered leaving the league over it*. But for some reason that bad luck is amplified on Monday Night Football. This time around Kev was up 115-106 heading into MNF. He had Josh Allen and Frader had Bijan. Josh Allen plus 9 points vs Bijan? Kev probably wins that 8 times out of 10. Not to mention Allen was coming off a demoralizing loss to the Patriots and facing a beatable Falcons team. We had every reason to think Allen would make a statement and give Kev one of his classic 40 point performances. Instead, he got a dud – 17.6 points. Meanwhile Bijan Robinson had the best game of his career – 39.6 points. That 22 point margin accounted for Kev’s defeat. In classic Kev form, he was the 2nd highest scoring team to lose.
*If Kev leaves the league we may have to close up shop. I don’t even want to think about that possibility.
Fittingly, it was the Josh Allen USURPER who played a large role in Kev’s demise. Drake Maye continued his epic run and put up 31.5 points. He beat Josh Allen on the field last week and then again in the fantasy realm this week. Gotta love when life imitates art.
It wasn’t all sunshine and roses for Frader though. Both of his Ohio State studs went down with injury. Marvin Harrison Jr to a concussion and Emeka Egbuka to a hamstring injury. It looks like both will be out for Week 7, a big matchup between Frader and DMO.
King Henry’s Court (DMO) defeats She Wants the Young Caff (Dyl): 163.89 to 109.97
Speaking of Ohio State alums…. I have to bring up Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The third year pro is WR2 and the #6 overall player in our scoring. He just put up a season high 30 points on a season high 162 yards and a TD. Remember when fantasy pundits were worried about the Seahawks pass offense before the season? I do, it’s why I have zero shares of JSN. Anyways that 30 along with a breakout performance from Achane let DMO cruise to the win.
Rough week for Dyl. That said - if you’re going to have an off week, it’s not bad to do it when your opponent puts up 164. The odd thing is that the top of Dyl’s lineup went off and he got nearly 75 points from Hurts, McCaffrey and Rachad White. Unfortunately the rest of his team failed to show up. Just 5 from Odunze? Better days ahead for him after a season worst output.
BONUS SEGMENT – TRADE EDITION:
As I was wrapping this up Ken and I were able to make the first (and hopefully not last) trade of the 2025 GWBL season:
Ken gets: 2026 7th (Cannellos), Deandre Swift
Commish gets: 2026 8th (Ken), Rashee Rice
This trade was just as much about roster management as it was about team need. I desperately needed a WR with Tee Higgins being a bust and Devonta Smith being his usual inconsistent self (blame Jalen Hurts). I also had a roster pinch at RB and had to move someone. Enter Rashee Rice coming off a 6 game suspension. All reports are that he’s healthy and primed to step back into his role of WR1 in KC. My team needs it.
As for Ken – he was flush at WR and could afford to move a piece. He’s got Jefferson, Chase, Mike Evans, Jameson Williams, Tre Tucker and Keon Coleman. Likewise he needed to move a piece for roster management reasons. The return was a move up in draft capital and a very strong RB2 in Deandre Swift. He’s currently RB18 and is coming off a 28 point performance. I worry that his absence turns a strength of mine (RB) into a weakness, but we’ll see.
Overall: I think this was a fair trade, but I’m seemingly getting negative press in the group chat. (Don’t you dare slander Lorenzo Perry to my face again!). We’ll see how it goes…
