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“A Great Paper for Smashing Cockroaches!” 🪳
Week 8 Recap
2026 Season · Week 8 Complete · Week 9 Preview Below
Melinda has a one-game lead and the league's most points, and Joe Burrow is the reason. He threw for 462 yards and 5 touchdowns against Tennessee, then ran in the overtime winner. Only Norm Van Brocklin, in 1951, has also passed for 450 yards and 5 scores, run for a touchdown, and thrown multiple interceptions in one game. Burrow's 39.5 points led the league this week. Joe is also 6-2, even though his all-play record is below .500, because no team except Melinda has faced fewer points.
The playoff line has a gap now. Ronjan and Mike are 4-4, a game ahead of four 3-5 teams. Mike got there by beating Cara, who came into the week as the league's top scorer. Pete jumped from 12th to seventh. Kris fell to ninth and lost his quarterback on Baltimore's first snap. Lamar Jackson needs surgery on his throwing thumb and is likely out for the season.
Now showing · 5:12
Just Scream It
The pundits recap Week 8 and pick every Week 9 game.
Standings through eight weeks
Top 6 make the playoffs · back column shown only when tied in wins
Rosters, 2025 head-to-head, and Familiar Faces
Who's hurt heading into Week 9
Lamar Jackson's thumb surgery leaves Kris with C.J. Stroud and Fernando Mendoza at quarterback. Kyler Murray's hamstring and Jeremiyah Love's new ankle injury are the others to watch.
2026 season to date
All-play counts each team's score against all 11 others every week. Luck is actual wins minus the wins that all-play rate predicts.
Week 8 had three blown games, the most of any week this season. Ben and Cara blew their first, and Karl's second ties him with Mike and Pete for the league lead. Joe still leads in efficiency at 94.3%. Cara is last at 83.5%, because her bench has scored a league-high 212.0 points. Joe has two more wins than his best lineups would have earned, and Pete and Karl each have two fewer.
Efficiency is points started divided by best possible points. Optimal lineup record pits each team's best lineup against its opponent's best lineup. Blown counts real losses that would have been wins with both teams at their best.
Week 7 Recap
2026 Season · Week 7 Complete · Week 8 Preview Below
Melinda is alone in first place, and she got there without any of her Bills. James Cook III, Khalil Shakir, and Tyler Bass were all on bye, so Joe Burrow carried her with 4 touchdown passes (28.9) in a 127.4-86.7 win over Joe. Lisette came into the week in first and lost it at quarterback. She started Bryce Young, who threw 2 interceptions and lost a fumble (5.4), while Bo Nix scored 26.2 on her bench. Starting Nix would have beaten Kris by 4.3. Cara moved up to second because she leads the league at 139.5 points per game, which also wins her the tiebreak with Lisette and Joe.
Five teams are 3-4, and only two of them are in playoff position. Ronjan and Mike hold those spots on points. Ronjan jumped from ninth to fifth behind Tony Pollard's 3 rushing touchdowns, and mariss fell out of the top six after his loss to Cara. Imran went from the league's lowest score to its highest in one week. Karl is 2-5 even though only four teams have scored more, because nobody has faced more points than his 1,004.1.
Standings through seven weeks
Top 6 make the playoffs · back column shown only when tied in wins
Rosters, 2025 head-to-head, and Familiar Faces
Who's hurt heading into Week 8
Aaron Jones Sr. and Jaylen Waddle left Week 7 games hurt and didn't return. The biggest question this week is Lamar Jackson's ankle, which matters to both Kris and Joe.
Week 6 Recap
2026 Season · Week 6 Complete · Week 7 Preview Below
Three teams are 5-1, and Lisette is the only one who has scored like it. Her 50-16 all-play record leads the league, while Melinda (42-24) and Joe (35-31) have won more than their scoring predicts. She has topped 136 points five straight weeks, including the week's best 145.1 with Patrick Mahomes held to 10.5.
Joe lost for the first time, and he lost his starting quarterback for the season. The Eagles put Jalen Hurts on IR Monday after tests found a blood clot in his calf and more in both lungs. League sources expect him to miss the season, though the team expects a full recovery. With Malik Willis also on bye, Joe started Pete's castoff Tyler Huntley and scored a season-low 99.2. His schedule has carried him all year, since no opponent has scored more than 140.1 against him. Karl has the same 35-31 all-play record and is 2-4, because he has faced at least 128.6 every week.
Standings through six weeks
Top 6 make the playoffs · back column shown only when tied in wins
Rosters, 2025 head-to-head, and Familiar Faces
Who's hurt heading into Week 7
Four starters left Week 6 games hurt and never returned: Romeo Doubs, Terry McLaurin, Mike Evans, and Davante Adams.
Week 5 Recap
2026 Season · Week 5 Complete · Week 6 Preview Below
Two games came down to less than two points this week, and both losers left the winning margin on their bench. Karl beat Ronjan 129.1-128.6 in the closest game of the season, one week after he lost to Melinda by less than a point. Ronjan started 97.7% of his best possible points, but Calvin Ridley's 4.3 on the bench would have beaten Romeo Doubs's 2.1 and flipped the result. Mike's mistake cost more. He picked up the Cowboys D/ST this week and watched them score -2.0, so an empty defense slot would have beaten Lisette. Karl's win moves him into fifth place, and Mike holds the last playoff spot at sixth.
Cara's 188.4 against Imran was the highest score since Joe's 201.6 in Week 1, and it sets up the biggest game of Week 6. Joe is 5-0 because none of his opponents has scored more than 140.1 against him. Cara has scored 341.9 over the last two weeks, more than any other team, and Joe faces her with only one healthy quarterback after Malik Willis goes on bye.
Who's hurt heading into Week 6
Three starters left Week 5 games hurt and never returned: Deebo Samuel, KC Concepcion, and Will Shipley. Four more players moved to IR this week, which brings the leaguewide total to 17.
Standings through five weeks
Top 6 make the playoffs · back column shown only when tied in wins
2026 season to date
Mike's loss to Lisette was the only blown game of Week 5, and it was his second of the season, the most in the league. With perfect lineups on both sides every week, Mike would be 4-1 instead of 2-3. He has started 80.4% of his best possible points, the lowest share in the league, and left 157.8 on his bench. Joe is the opposite case. He leads the league at 95.1%, and his 5-0 record is one win better than perfect lineups would have earned. Lisette, Melinda, and Ronjan also have one more win than their best lineups.
Efficiency is points started divided by best possible points. Optimal lineup record pits each team's best lineup against its opponent's best lineup. Blown counts real losses that would have been wins with both teams at their best.
Rosters, 2025 head-to-head, and Familiar Faces
Week 4 Recap
2026 Season · Week 4 Complete · Week 5 Preview Below
Olave Oyl (Joe) is still unbeaten at 4-0, even though the team has scored less every week. Joe's 201.6 in Week 1 would have beaten all 11 other teams, while his 112.2 this week would have beaten only two. The schedule has made up the difference. Two of his four opponents posted the week's lowest score, and Mike left a winning lineup on his bench against him in Week 3. That's why no team has faced fewer points than Joe's 406.6. His lineup calls have helped too, since no manager has started a higher share of his possible points than Joe's 94.3%.
Karl is 1-3 and deserves a lot better. The Aristocrats have scored 528.7 points, third-most in the league, and their 29-15 all-play record trails only Lisette's. That all-play mark is worth about 2.6 wins, and no other team has fallen even one full win short of its scoring. His schedule explains it. Since beating Pete in Week 1, Karl has drawn the week's top score twice and the second-best score once. Cara scored 154.7 against him in Week 2, Melinda beat him by less than a point in Week 3, and Lisette hit him with the season's second-highest score this week (169.0). No team has faced more points than Karl's 597.9. Only the Melinda loss was in his own hands, since he left Jacoby Brissett's 25.6 on the bench that week. He sits one game out of the last playoff spot.
Who's hurt heading into Week 5
Seven starters left Week 4 games hurt and never returned, and the number of players listed as out jumped from 5 to 18. IR slots hold 22 players, the same as this point last season.
Standings through four weeks
Top 6 make the playoffs · back column shown only when tied in wins
2026 season to date
Lineup calls have decided three games this season. Pete blew one against Ronjan in Week 2, and Karl and Mike both blew one in Week 3, where Karl's was the one-point loss to Melinda with Jacoby Brissett on his bench. Each of them would have won even if the opponent had also set a perfect lineup. Nobody blew a game through four weeks last season. Week 4 left plenty of points on benches but produced no blown games, because every loser would still have lost a matchup of perfect lineups. Efficiency explains part of Joe's run. His 94.3% leads the league, and his Week 3 win over Mike was one of the three blown games. Mike ranks last at 77.4% after benching 143.8 points, and perfect lineups on both sides would have him at 3-1. Ben shows the limit of good management. He ranks second at 88.7% and is still 1-3, because he'd be 1-3 with perfect lineups too.
Efficiency is points started divided by best possible points. Optimal lineup record pits each team's best lineup against its opponent's best lineup. Blown counts real losses that would have been wins with both teams at their best.
Rosters, 2025 head-to-head, and Familiar Faces
Week 3 Recap
2026 Season · Week 3 Complete · Week 4 Preview Below
ESPN's projections cost three teams a win this week. Cara, Karl, and mariss all set their lineups by the numbers and watched their benches outscore the players they started. Karl's was the cruelest: he lost to Melinda by one point with Jacoby Brissett's 25.6 on his bench. Mike lost to Joe by 8.4 because the Bears waited too long to name Case Keenum their starter. Mike played it safe and left Keenum out of the OP slot. Keenum scored 24.5. That leaves Olave Oyl (Joe) alone at 3-0 and seven teams stuck at 1-2.
Who's hurt heading into Week 4
Jayden Daniels is out and Jaxson Dart is on IR, so Mike is starting two fill-ins at quarterback. Marcus Mariota backs up Daniels in Washington, so whichever of them starts for the Commanders is on Mike's roster. Case Keenum has no such cover. He's Chicago's backup and started only because Caleb Williams missed Week 3. Williams is listed as out again, so Keenum should get another start in Week 4. Once Williams returns, Mike's second quarterback is Dart coming off IR or Shedeur Sanders, who hasn't taken a snap this season.
Imran's backfield is the new emergency. De'Von Achane went to IR after a 1.7-point game, Travis Etienne Jr. is out, and James Conner and Jonathon Brooks were already on IR. None of his four healthy backs scored more than 11.0 in Week 3. Jadarian Price and Emanuel Wilson split Seattle's carries for 29 rushing yards combined. Tyler Allgeier had -1 rushing yards in Arizona, where Jeremiyah Love ran for 90. Brian Robinson Jr. led the group with 11.0 off Imran's bench. Etienne is only listed as out, so he should be the first one back. He's thinking about renaming the team AY’chan and AY’chan Injury Law.
Josh Allen is questionable after a two-interception game, and Pete has no starting quarterback behind him. Carson Wentz and Drew Lock started in Week 2 while Kyler Murray and Sam Darnold were hurt. Murray and Darnold returned in Week 3, and neither backup recorded a stat. Cooper Rush, picked up last week, sits behind Michael Penix Jr. in Atlanta.
Ben loses Baker Mayfield and Puka Nacua, both out, but Justin Herbert and Michael Penix Jr. still give him two starting quarterbacks.
Standings through three weeks
Top 6 make the playoffs · back column shown only when tied in wins
Rosters, 2025 head-to-head, and Familiar Faces
Week 2 Recap
2026 Season · Week 2 Complete · Week 3 Preview Below
Ten of the league's twelve teams are 1-1 after two weeks, separated by less than 30 points in the standings. Only Olave Oyl (2-0) and Beard Al (0-2) have broken from the pack. Beard Al's been the unlucky one: Josh Allen has put up 76.5 points over two weeks, the league's best two-week total at any position, and it hasn't been enough to win a single game. The other story of the week is at quarterback, where seven players carry a real injury designation leaguewide. Most rosters can replace the production; two can't (below).
Every quarterback with a real designation
Pete (Dillon Gabriel), Ben (Tua Tagovailoa), and Ronjan (Sam Darnold) are next-man-up situations: all three already have two other NFL-caliber arms rostered and starting in that player's place. mariss is a real downgrade, not a crisis: Kyler Murray hasn't played since leaving Week 1 early, and Caleb Williams is now doubtful too, but Geno Smith and Jameis Winston are both healthy, and Smith already filled in for 15.6 points in Week 2. Mike is the one actual emergency: Jayden Daniels is doubtful, Jaxson Dart is questionable, and the only other quarterback on his roster, rookie Shedeur Sanders, hasn't played a single snap all season. If both Daniels and Dart sit in Week 3, Mike may not have a second warm body to put on the field.
Checked against ESPN's own pregame projections
Current playoff picture and points leaders through two weeks
Current Playoff Picture
Top 6 make the playoffs · back column shown only when tied in wins
Top Scorers
Total points through two weeks
Rosters, 2025 head-to-head, and Familiar Faces
Week 1 Recap
2026 Season · Week 1 Complete · Week 2 Preview Below
Six teams won in Week 1, and not by the same margin - Olave Oyl's 201.6 was the week's high, Buffalo Abusement Park won with the week's low among winners, 123.5. The closest game came down to 7.4 points, decided by a defense that beat its own projection by more than that. The week's best individual score and its worst played for the same team. Here's how all six games went, and who's up in Week 2.
All 6 games, checked against ESPN's own pregame projections
Rosters, 2025 head-to-head, and Familiar Faces - same format as the Week 1 Preview tab, now pointed at real records and rank instead of preseason projections
Season Opener
2026 Season · Week 1 Preview · Kickoff Week
Six teams enter 2026 under a new name, logo, or both
Both rosters, ESPN's preseason power rank, and how these two did last time