Headhunters 3: The Sinister Six

## Introduction

And then there were six. Last night's nailbiter turned blowout nearly chopped a team that wasn't even in consideration for elimination. Plus, a team projected to break 200 barely breaks 100. Five weeks remain. Only one team can survive...

## In Memorium: Beach McBungalow

Last week we saw the biggest upset, maybe ever. This week? The biggest collapse.

Beach McBungalow was sitting pretty. They had $326 left, second most in the league and most by a team that hasn't been shucking and jivving for ten straight weeks. They had won some big bids recently and appeared to be gaining strength at just the right time. They had two of the league's top-four drafted RBs, the preseason's #2 tight end, fantasy's top QB, and two of the best handcuffs in football. So what happened?

Defense wins championships, and it also can get heads chopped. Brady, Moore, Evans, Freeman, and Gordon met up with some stellar defenses. Add that to mid-game injuries to McCaffrey and Waller, and a classic "hindsight is 20/20" decision to leave both Pollard (33.50) and McKissic (24.70) on the bench, and you get the perfect storm of underperformance. Ironically, Keeling was eliminated last week because they *did* start both Pollard and Zeke. Now, doing so would have saved McBungalow. Maybe if they had James Conner, who was on the bye, or if McCaffrey wasn't made of glass. But maybe doesn't buy you extra time in Headhunters, only nightmares.

Beach McBungalow:

## In Memorium: Neck-Fix and Chill

Heading in to Monday night it was clear that the second team to be eliminated was going to be either Neck-Fix or Mac. While Mac was getting average performances across the board (11 from Sanders on an 18 projection, 10 for Pittman on a 17, 20 for Kupp on a 27), Neck-Fix was surviving on the back of just two starters. While Robby Anderson got just 2.70, Gesicki 4.90, Chubb 6.9, and Sutton 4.10, Joe Mixon put the team on his back and scored 47.13 points. New England defense added another 32. That along nearly got them to McBungalow's total. But QB is huge in this league, and starting Cam Newton with only eight teams should not be happening. Not with guys like Burrow, Carr, Wentz, and Mac Jones out there in free agency. Cam Newton put up just 10.51 points and Neck-Fix went into Monday night needing a miracle. On paper, sure, this looked close. A narrow lead by Mac with Russell Wilson going against Chill's Lockett and Alex Collins. But when you consider that every point Lockett scores is cut into by Wilson, it becomes clear that it would have taken a night from Alex Collins that we've only seen once this year (a 20 touch, 101 yd, 1 TD masterpiece against Pittsburgh on October 17th). Since then, no game higher than 8.33. And that's how it played out.

Lockett played well, but not enough to cancel out all the points Wilson accumulated over the course of yet another shit fest of a performance. Wilson outscored Cam Newton by 22.67 points. The difference in this matchup was 23.95.

Oddly enough, there was a point in this game where Out of Luck's 172.38 seemed reachable by both teams, which would have been a pretty wild twist to an overwise average weekend of football. But all worked out as it should have between these two. Return of the Mac was projected 40 points higher and took care of his business, while Neck-Fix becomes the next and last double-header elimination in 2021.

Neck-Fix and Chill:

## Weeks Survived (2019 v 2020 v 2021)

Another plus year for Neck-Fix and this is as deep in the season as they have ever gone, given that the inaugural 2019 season had just 17 teams.

Beach McBungalow also has a solid followup to last season. They are eliminated in week 12 for the second time in three season. They have never made it to week 13.

## Dead Money

Keeping track of all the cash that never got spent by teams that are now eliminated.

Dead Money

## Week Thirteen-Seventeen

Five weeks left in the season. One team cut each week until a champion is crowned.

## New Releases

In addition to this week's new releases, Amari Cooper is still available via auction from Return of the Mac. Since his game was Thursday, he did not clear waivers in time and so he will clear with the new releases. The minimum bid is $30.

1. DeAndre Hopkins
2. Nick Chubb
3. Joe Mixon
4. Ezekiel Elliot
5. Tom Brady
6. James Conner
7. Patrick Mahomes
8. DJ Moore
9. Tyler Lockett
10. Mike Evans

## Week Twelve Bidding Results

#### Quick-hit thoughts

* Not hard to see how the bidding went this week, it was the man with all the money who put it all on the table and it for sure helped him survive at least one more week. Of course, the injury to Dalvin Cook is a huge loss that they'll need to try to work around for at least the next three weeks.
* One has to wonder if it wouldn't have been better for the other five surviving teams if Bad VRs had won the Cooper Kupp bid, draining them of all their funds with still a month to go in the league. They lost the bid by a single dollar.
* Sloppy Seconds is strong and looking to get stronger. They Finished 2nd in bidding three times.

Last Year's most expensive week twelve player: Alvin Kamara ($169).

## Kings of the Castle

### 1. Sloppy Seconds

Don't look now but Sloppy Seconds is HOT! Top 2 two weeks in a row and plenty left to spend on this week's crop of players.

### 2. Bad VRs

Call is strategy, but AJ Brown's auction stank of desperation. No one wanted the IR-bound WR and no one wanted to give them more money. It's clear Bad VRs still wants to bid big and thinks we're all stupid enough to give them the funds to do it. Now, with the final batch of double-elimination players out there, I expect a lot of action to strengthen an already tough roster to beat.

### 3. The Titanic

Top-three finish again but still felt like misstep. There may be trouble brewing at WR and defense, but luckily those are two positions that are cheap at this stage in the game .

## On the Chopping Block

### 4. RemDawg Forever

53 points from Leonard Fournette covered up underperformance by seven other players. At some point DK Metcalf, the OG waiver wire add for Dawg, needs to step up.

### 5. Out of Luck

Bargain shopper Out of Luck had a pretty balanced, albeit below average, day from his guys. Biggest shock might be Myles Gaskin, bought for $1, outscoring heavy hitters like Ja'Marr Chase, Chris Godwin, James Robinson, and Keenan Allen. The obvious fault is at TE. Jared Cook isn't winning anyone a championship.

### 6. Return of the Mac

Enough has already been said about this year's Cinderella team. Now we wait and see what they can pull off free agency this week.

## Average Scores of Eliminated Teams

Nearly identical scoring average for the two teams eliminated this week as they finish within three points of each other on the overall season scoring.

## Dungeon Dwellers

2021 teams that finished second-to-last, narrowly avoiding elimination:

Mac puts up the highest score of a dungeon dweller thus far in 2021, a sure sign that the competition is ramping up.

## Single Season Scoring Records

As teams get eliminated their season will be added to the record books. Neither eliminated team this week evencame close to Keeling's 2134.22 set last week when he was eliminated. Titanic, meanwhile, leads the league with 2240 and will look to move into the top-10 all-time single season scores with his week 13 performance.

## All-Time Combined Points Scored

As teams get eliminated, their updated totals will be added to the record books. While both teams breach the top-10, neither is close to hitting the top-3. Mac, meanwhile, is already at 5700 points and climbing. They have a chance to become just the 4th team to break 6,000 total points in Headhunters history.