GWBL - 2025 - WEEK 1 RECAPS (WE'RE BACK)
Gentlemen,
It’s been a while since I’ve written to you on this platform – 974 days, give or take. It was January 10th, 2023 and I was closing out the 2022 season with a recap of Kev’s title run (his first, long overdue and well deserved title). His team name was “I LOVE KISSIN TDs”, a tribute to the old tweet from Mitch Trubisky that came out during his pre-draft interviews.
My kids were about 3 years and 1.5 years old, give or take. I was smack dab in what some people call “the trenches”, but what I call “the fog”. The 3-4 year period of my life I’ve partially browned out, the period when my kids were babies/toddlers and I was enduring sleep deprivation I never imagined possible. Grinding through the day to day just trying to survive. These years brought many changes for me and unfortunately, one of them was my capacity for fantasy football nonsense.
As you all know, I used to live for these writeups. Every week for the first decade of the league’s existence, I’d put out something. I’d buckle down on a Tuesday/Wednesday night and churn out “content” for 2-3 hours. Recapping, lamenting and venting about the goings on of the league. Sometimes coming up with themed series, but often just analyzing everyone’s team and second guessing their decisions. Culminating in the year end reviews, which were some of my favorite projects. Eventually I got a website going, an 8th grade quality repository for these musings which I named: www.protectoroftheleague.com. I was obsessed with Game of Thrones for much of that time period, so it fit.
Anyways once kids came, I moved to the burbs and “real life” settled in, I had to scale back in certain areas. One of those areas was fantasy football. (Along with seeing friends, working out, eating healthy, reading, skiing and in general all of my hobbies.) And so it was, on January 10th, 2023, I put out my last article on the website. From that point until now, I’ve put out zero GWBL “content”. Not one writeup, recap or power rankings, as far as I can remember. It’s not that I didn’t love the league, or that I’d lost interest. I simply didn’t have it in me.
BUT things have changed. I’ve made it out of the fog. My kids are 4+ and almost 6. I feel mostly human again. A little less than I used to be, but a real human at last. I went snow skiing last winter for the first time in 5-ish years. I went water skiing three times this summer (still got it). I CAN LIVE AGAIN.
Between that and Kev calling me out on draft night, I’ve found the motivation to resume these writeups. So here we are. I’m going to start slow and I can’t promise that I won’t miss a week here or there, but I’ll do my best. At least 2 a month to start. I may be rusty but bear with me. Welcome back, here we go:
Matchup 1: Chase is On the Case (Ken) defeats Tom’s Retirement Tour (Commish) 120.27 to 110.84:
WOOF, what a car crash of a start to my title defense. Put up the 2nd lowest points and lost by the closest margin. It started with Devonta Smith’s 4.6 point “effort” on opening night and my team never recovered. Tee Higgins also had a groan-worthy performance, with 6.3 points on just 4 targets. Which is ironic because I vividly remember groaning and saying “this feels gross” when I drafted him at the end of the third round. He helped me win a title last year and I think my rose colored glasses made me temporarily forget that he’s one of the most frustrating players to own in fantasy.
Ultimately it was a lackluster opening to the season, with few silver linings. I guess Tyler Warren is a nice consolation prize? 15 points from my rookie TE, maybe he can be a decent sleeper next year. Did I mention I won the title last year?
Congrats to Ken for his week 1 victory, a cupcake city W. His 120.27 was the lowest score for any winning team, but a win is a win. I was actually pretty surprised his team didn’t put up more – his combination of Chase and Jefferson looks deadly. The two of them didn’t even combine for 20 this week, but I doubt that will happen again.
The thing that hurt the most was James Cook. Another guy who helped me win the 2024 title (last one I swear) – he cooked me (nice) for 23.80 points in that Sunday night fireworks show between the Bills and Ravens. Getting Cook at 2.10 is going to look like a steal when it’s all said and done.
Matchup 2: GALSFLL LAMAR JACKSON (Lamone) defeats I LOVE LAMB (Tieg) 121.04 to 99.52
While Ken’s win with 120 was fortunate, Lamone’s 121.04 wining effort was just as blessed. Tieg was projected for 140 points this week and only put up 99. Better lucky than good sometimes. One person who is good, VERY GOOD – is Lamar Jackson. Lamone re-rolled the team name and the stud dual threat QB who inspired it. So far, he’s got to be thrilled. While he only got a round or so of margin when comparing Jackson’s keeper cost (4.05) to his ADP (early 3rd), this may be the most impactful keeper when it’s all said and done.
While Lamone’s happy to get the W this week, he has to be concerned about his WR group. Drake London is already hurt and Matthew Golden looks like he might be a dud for fantasy. Tet McMillan looked pretty good, but that might be his WR1 right now. Diggs and Shakir are decent flex options but that might be their ceiling. He may have to swing a trade to shape things up there.
ROUGH start for Tieg. He loves Lamb (his keeper), but the rest of his team left a lot to be desired. Like me, Tieg was boned by Jalen Hurts on opening night. It was AJ Brown letting Tieg down with an embarrassing 1.8 point output. Ken Walker was another bust, ceding half the work to Charbonnet and barely scraping together 7.4 points. Three of those came on receptions and I’m not sure if any RB has lost more value over the past few days than Walker.
On the plus side Sam LaPorta looked solid. I’ll take 9 targets and 14 fantasy points from a TE any day. He went through the dreaded sophomore slump last year, but LaPorta may be primed for a bounceback.
Matchup 3: Deebo Baggins (Frader) defeats Two Joe’s One Kupp (Tone) 144.48 to 115.77
Finally we get to a team that truly deserved to win – Frader, the weekly high scorer (payment to come shortly). According to sleeper this was the biggest blowout matchup and Frader beat his projection by 16%. The Broncos D with 17 was a nice gift on the NFL’s opening weekend and Bijan paced the team with a strong 26.8 point output.
Emeka Egbuka was the real story though – 23.8 points from the 8th round pick. Not only is that insane production from an 8th round pick, but Frader’s already locked in his keeper for 2026. Egbuka will roll into Week 2 as WR4 in our scoring. I’ll also mention his old teammate, Marvin Harrison. Frader’s 3rd round pick put up 18 points in Week 1 and is making me regret my Tee Higgins pick even more.
Speaking of Keepers – Tone may be the runner up for Keeper production this year. The Panthers fed Chuba Hubbard all day and he posted 21.10 fantasy points on 19 touches, 90 yards and a TD. Zay Flowers was a stud for tone as well, netting 28.5 points in the Bills-Ravens extravaganza. I always underrate the Ravens receivers given the way their offense operates, but Flowers might be primed for a monster season.
So why’d tone lose? Joe Burrow, for one. 10 points on 113 passing yards? I know he usually starts slow but damn. His flex players also failed to show up, highlighted by Isaiah Pacheco’s 5.8 point output. Only 5 carries for Pacheco? That can’t continue….can it?
Matchup 4: Oshkosh B’Gosh (Kev) defeats King Henry’s Court (DMO) 143.16 to 126.78
DMO ravaged the league last year, but it was he who was ravaged in Week 1 of 2025. Despite Derrick Henry going for 32.8 points, DMO was unable to take the crown. (King Henry… crown…. That one was lazy.) Honestly the box score for DMO doesn’t make sense when you look at it: between Henry, Achane and Baker he totaled about 75 points, 25 per. He also got 19+ from JSN and 16 from Kamara. How the hell did he lose with that crew?
A goose egg from the defense is never a good thing, but this is just an optical illusion. I guess I’m somehow still adjusting to the scoring increases we made a few years ago (move to full PPR, added flex, etc).
This may be the funniest stat of the week - Kev’s D scored -1 point. Who was his defense? The Steelers. Who were they playing? The Jets, the team who haunts Kev’s personal life. Can’t make that up.
Alas, Kev got a huge W on opening week. Josh Allen was the cheat code, leading all fantasy players with 46.56 points. Honestly he’s just bad for fantasy, his points should be handicapped or something because I don’t see how anyone can compete with this. FORTY SIX POINTS??! When Kev took him at 2.08 I did a double take. Egg on my face though, I should have taken him at 2.03.
Matchup 5: She Wants the Young Caff (Dyl) defeats Brown ^ 2 (Keetz) 133.53 to 111.64
From one cheat code to another – Jalen Hurts led Dyl to the win with a 30 point showing on opening night. I hate the way this guy plays, I hate this mickey mouse school yard flag football bullshit. Hurts had 30 points when AJ Brown and Devonta Smith combined for ~6. This fucker had another two rushing TDs and is well on his way to his 5th straight season with double digit rushing TDs.
Christian Mccaffrey may be the bigger story for Dylan though. If he’s back to what he was in his prime then Dylan is going to be dangerous this season. 31 touches and 142 total yards, slap me silly and tell me it’s 2022 again.
Keetz was on the receiving end of this one and suffered from the same issue many of us did. Nice performances from some guys: Breece Hall with 20 and Garrett Wilson with 22 for example. All to be undone by lackluster performances: Bo Nix with 10 and Amonra with 8.5.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Keetz is a dark horse for the title this year. For starters, he has an unreal WR trio with Amonra, Garrett Wilson and Brian Thomas Jr. His RBs are Gibbs and Chase Brown. Elite TE with McBride. Resurgence from Breece Hall, who might be a massive steal. Where was this last year when I traded a 1st for you, Breece??? If Keetz sorts out his QB spot we could all be in trouble.
